Robert raised an eyebrow after hearing all the spec on what would seem to him, his new favourite toy. He then said “well, well, well, what do we have here? Something designed for destruction, glory and all kinds of fun. Oh, before I take this for, uh, show and tell, here’s something else I’ve been lugging around, make sure it gets to the right place, or hands.” He then reciprocated her fist bump, although not waggling it back, or making an explosion noise, he then put it in the holster designated for the gun he gave to Mackie, it was a tight fit, but it worked, as he waited for whatever important monologue or discussion Kato was going to have with him and sec, as it was the most likely thing to have.
For a few seconds, neither of the two people in the room did anything as they watched the wretched sight in front of them, merely standing or squatting there in their respective positions. Out of the two, it was Ike to move first, though it didn't really seem to be him. His eyes had narrowed down to a dull but harsh purple, It was as if some little cog in his synthetic brain had stopped turning and all his previous light faded from his body.
"I see -" He began dully before looking around slowly at the room as if seeing it properly for the first time, "Well, if you want to be left alone, so be it - When you're done I'll come in here and clean this all up. I have nothing else to do."
In truth, he didn't really see anyone or anything else in the room really anymore. The way she looked at him, or more rather didn't, confirmed his inner thoughts that trying to salvage anything was a hopeless task here. He'd destroyed her trust to such a degree that nothing he said or did was going to help anymore. All he wanted now was to be alone with the vast emptiness of space. Had it been practically any other Ike would never have accepted this situation as the solution or the natural course of things. He'd have persisted until the hopelessness of a situation was beaten repeatedly into him. Today, however, it was different, he no longer had any trust in his own ideals or even his own choices, there was only part of his previous life that he now had faith in, the comfort he felt from the vast emptiness beyond and the wonders it could hold.
The Synth practically dragged himself out, fighting against the instinctual urge to turn around and say something, anything more to the girl who sat wretchedly in the corner. In the end, his uncertainty and fear won and he left without saying more.
There was only one place he was going to go after this, that was to his room. Not once did he move at anything above a snail's pace, just dragging himself along, painful step by painful step. Once in his room, he shut the door, not bothering to lock it. Who would want to come in and visit him? He was just a bundle of fake memories and hardware he had no clue about, a living weapon with no control over his own systems. Slowly he curled up in front of his window and shut down every function of his body apart from his eyes.
Alone in space.
He should have taken the chance when he had it.
Maybe he still should.
Annag looked down at the crumpled form in front of her and once more looked as unsure as she felt, her one tactic of trying to appeal in a rough way to the soldier or fighting spirit in her own direction had failed and that was all she really had. She'd never been much of a people person, though in the pit she never really had to be. It had always been Reina who'd done most of the talking when they'd first met and afterward they'd always berated each other back into shape after any event that put either out of shape. It had been a competitive and rough around the edges sort of relationship, but that was how they'd liked it.
To her, a moment sitting and breaking down was death, she'd seen others like that and days to weeks afterward they'd ended up dead. Back there you needed to turn everything into a positive drive forward, those that couldn't never left. In a twisted way, she'd destroyed much of her own ability to feel sorry for herself, to her the natural respone to any situation was to find the way to keep defying whatever situation she'd ended up in.
She knew in a way that Kato had accepted her too easily, but to her mind, that didn't really matter. Not after she'd found out about the ship, that had given her something else to keep driving her forwards, a new way to protect her people. She'd never wanted to teach a lesson in morality to this girl, she knew little about that herself. She wanted to give them both something to protect. After all that was how she'd survived so many years in the pits and now in so many ways she was totally and utterly out of her depth here, standing in front of the girl pleading with them to leave.
"Fine, stay like that." It tumbled out, she had no other words really, she just felt the need to say something, it wasn't to comfort or even offer any sort of offer of apology, just a simple sentence to fill the void.
Seeing nothing else she really could do or even knew how to do in this situation, the warrior turned and almost marched out of the room, carefully shutting the door behind her, leaving Riley completely alone inside her room.
Sec bounced up and down in a way that could only really be described as angrily as it waited, it wasn't that Sec was actually annoyed by anything, Sec just was angry, that's how it had always been after Kato salvaged it thousands of years ago and how it had been since. A little scuttling ball of incandescent fury at everyone and everything around it, no one knew why either.
Of course, Sec knew, but it would never tell anyone, it liked being angry, it gave it something to do rather than just sit in a corner being docile, rusting away until an attack came.
When the fist came anywhere near its face, the two small digital eyes would glance upwards at Mackie and glare in the way that it glared at every living being who had the audacity to even exist in the same universe as itself. In its own little way that was its way of showing friendship, choosing not to vaporise the person standing infront of it.
"The upgrades sound useful, you're a useful human. Unlike most of the useless flesh sacks on this ship!" Again with Sec, it wasn't biased against humans, it would say the exact thing about the other machines on board, that was just Sec.
It felt nice for Kato to once again be surrounded by people who he'd worked with for a long time, he enjoyed the sense of shared memories when they met, there was somewhere he felt he could truly just relax. That these memories would blot the others out if just for a while, he would be able to stare at the memories of the faces he knew, not the ones he never did.
Looking down he gave a lopsided half-smile towards Mackie and returned the fistbump, a gesture he'd gone through many times before and one that still gave him a small grin. Out of the crew on the ship Mackie, if that was her true name, was one of the ones Kato shared the most camaraderie with. After all, the little quirk that made her such a paradox was exactly the reason that he felt such kinship with the strange hippie.
"Physically, one of our new cadets, a Synth took a blast to the back and through his leg. Another Cadet got knocked about a bit, but other than that everyone survived. I don't know about mentally, but that's something for a different time." He really did want to address it, talk it through with someone who always seemed more at peace with the universe than he could ever hope to be, but there were more pressing matters in that moment.
"We took one of the two attackers captive, a teen named Annag, After explaining to her what this ship really was, not some supply of fresh resources as they thought it was she agreed to inform me of another attack, if she is to be believed and I hope she is, there's another squad of them inbound. From a guess of what she saw, 10 of them all in ablative or superconductive armour."
He sighed, this wasn't how he'd wanted the Valiant to exist, as some relic that was going to be fought over by factions on the ringworld for use in their own petty squabbles, all of them unaware that if it was actually used it would wipe the ringworld, everything in this solar system clean of life.
Yet here it was anyway and he needed more than his own brain to deal with this one. There was no quick orders coming in to follow this time, now he needed some help. "I'm open to suggestions on how to deal with it."
"I see -" He began dully before looking around slowly at the room as if seeing it properly for the first time, "Well, if you want to be left alone, so be it - When you're done I'll come in here and clean this all up. I have nothing else to do."
In truth, he didn't really see anyone or anything else in the room really anymore. The way she looked at him, or more rather didn't, confirmed his inner thoughts that trying to salvage anything was a hopeless task here. He'd destroyed her trust to such a degree that nothing he said or did was going to help anymore. All he wanted now was to be alone with the vast emptiness of space. Had it been practically any other Ike would never have accepted this situation as the solution or the natural course of things. He'd have persisted until the hopelessness of a situation was beaten repeatedly into him. Today, however, it was different, he no longer had any trust in his own ideals or even his own choices, there was only part of his previous life that he now had faith in, the comfort he felt from the vast emptiness beyond and the wonders it could hold.
The Synth practically dragged himself out, fighting against the instinctual urge to turn around and say something, anything more to the girl who sat wretchedly in the corner. In the end, his uncertainty and fear won and he left without saying more.
There was only one place he was going to go after this, that was to his room. Not once did he move at anything above a snail's pace, just dragging himself along, painful step by painful step. Once in his room, he shut the door, not bothering to lock it. Who would want to come in and visit him? He was just a bundle of fake memories and hardware he had no clue about, a living weapon with no control over his own systems. Slowly he curled up in front of his window and shut down every function of his body apart from his eyes.
Alone in space.
He should have taken the chance when he had it.
Maybe he still should.
Annag looked down at the crumpled form in front of her and once more looked as unsure as she felt, her one tactic of trying to appeal in a rough way to the soldier or fighting spirit in her own direction had failed and that was all she really had. She'd never been much of a people person, though in the pit she never really had to be. It had always been Reina who'd done most of the talking when they'd first met and afterward they'd always berated each other back into shape after any event that put either out of shape. It had been a competitive and rough around the edges sort of relationship, but that was how they'd liked it.
To her, a moment sitting and breaking down was death, she'd seen others like that and days to weeks afterward they'd ended up dead. Back there you needed to turn everything into a positive drive forward, those that couldn't never left. In a twisted way, she'd destroyed much of her own ability to feel sorry for herself, to her the natural respone to any situation was to find the way to keep defying whatever situation she'd ended up in.
She knew in a way that Kato had accepted her too easily, but to her mind, that didn't really matter. Not after she'd found out about the ship, that had given her something else to keep driving her forwards, a new way to protect her people. She'd never wanted to teach a lesson in morality to this girl, she knew little about that herself. She wanted to give them both something to protect. After all that was how she'd survived so many years in the pits and now in so many ways she was totally and utterly out of her depth here, standing in front of the girl pleading with them to leave.
"Fine, stay like that." It tumbled out, she had no other words really, she just felt the need to say something, it wasn't to comfort or even offer any sort of offer of apology, just a simple sentence to fill the void.
Seeing nothing else she really could do or even knew how to do in this situation, the warrior turned and almost marched out of the room, carefully shutting the door behind her, leaving Riley completely alone inside her room.
Sec bounced up and down in a way that could only really be described as angrily as it waited, it wasn't that Sec was actually annoyed by anything, Sec just was angry, that's how it had always been after Kato salvaged it thousands of years ago and how it had been since. A little scuttling ball of incandescent fury at everyone and everything around it, no one knew why either.
Of course, Sec knew, but it would never tell anyone, it liked being angry, it gave it something to do rather than just sit in a corner being docile, rusting away until an attack came.
When the fist came anywhere near its face, the two small digital eyes would glance upwards at Mackie and glare in the way that it glared at every living being who had the audacity to even exist in the same universe as itself. In its own little way that was its way of showing friendship, choosing not to vaporise the person standing infront of it.
"The upgrades sound useful, you're a useful human. Unlike most of the useless flesh sacks on this ship!" Again with Sec, it wasn't biased against humans, it would say the exact thing about the other machines on board, that was just Sec.
It felt nice for Kato to once again be surrounded by people who he'd worked with for a long time, he enjoyed the sense of shared memories when they met, there was somewhere he felt he could truly just relax. That these memories would blot the others out if just for a while, he would be able to stare at the memories of the faces he knew, not the ones he never did.
Looking down he gave a lopsided half-smile towards Mackie and returned the fistbump, a gesture he'd gone through many times before and one that still gave him a small grin. Out of the crew on the ship Mackie, if that was her true name, was one of the ones Kato shared the most camaraderie with. After all, the little quirk that made her such a paradox was exactly the reason that he felt such kinship with the strange hippie.
"Physically, one of our new cadets, a Synth took a blast to the back and through his leg. Another Cadet got knocked about a bit, but other than that everyone survived. I don't know about mentally, but that's something for a different time." He really did want to address it, talk it through with someone who always seemed more at peace with the universe than he could ever hope to be, but there were more pressing matters in that moment.
"We took one of the two attackers captive, a teen named Annag, After explaining to her what this ship really was, not some supply of fresh resources as they thought it was she agreed to inform me of another attack, if she is to be believed and I hope she is, there's another squad of them inbound. From a guess of what she saw, 10 of them all in ablative or superconductive armour."
He sighed, this wasn't how he'd wanted the Valiant to exist, as some relic that was going to be fought over by factions on the ringworld for use in their own petty squabbles, all of them unaware that if it was actually used it would wipe the ringworld, everything in this solar system clean of life.
Yet here it was anyway and he needed more than his own brain to deal with this one. There was no quick orders coming in to follow this time, now he needed some help. "I'm open to suggestions on how to deal with it."
As the two of them left, Riley was self-aware enough to glance up at them with something like appreciation. Annag might have caught it. She was watching them go, subtly, with the distinct air about her that they were being merciful.
In a way, it was progress. A twisted, perverted and painful way - but a type of progress nonetheless.
She could recoup now. Build her strength back up. Slather mortar and stack bricks and build up the wall that had kept her safe in the two years since the only one willing or able to dig under it had been executed.
She was still screwed. Riley was sure of that. The concept that Annag could actually have even the slightest inkling of desire to legitimately help Riley with anything at all seemed, to her, an absolute impossibility. She was all too certain that now, the whole ship was going to know how pathetic she actually was. Just like last time.
Except that last time, she’d had help. She’d had someone that had forced his way through her barriers, tunnelled under her wall and tackled her and pinned her and made her trust him implicitly. She still never understood why. Maybe she was a charity case. That was her only real theory. Milo did always like helping folks who couldn’t help themselves. But even if she was just some project for him to solve, some pet for him to look after, he had been the exception. It had been okay when it was him. He had never, for one moment, looked at her in horror and revulsion.
But then again, she had been different back then. Better.
Riley stared at the floor, gazed blankly at the drying blood.
Having gotten all that energy out, and once again alone with nobody to judge her or look down on her or mock her, she could think. What sleep she had ecked in however long she’d been there had been restless, but enough to keep her functioning. She was dazed, but just enough to convince herself, for the moment, that maybe their presence had just been another waking dream. Maybe she wasn’t going to have to go out and face the ridicule of a crew delighted to see that the insufferable little brat wasn’t nearly as tough as she let on. It was a nice thought, though she knew that, realistically, it was now up to her to claw her way back up from the dirt.
Yes, she would have to be more bitchy, more angry, more hostile, more reserved, more downright mean and nasty than ever before. Yes, she would have to never relent, no matter what. Yes, she would have to lash out and hurt as many other people as she could, do as much damage as possible, to prove that she wasn’t the spineless worm they would now see her as. And maybe, in time, she could recover from this blow to her dignity. She didn’t need anyone to sock her tormentors in the face for her. She could do it herself. And she would.
And maybe, she thought in a brief, but flaring moment of pessimism, she could be so obstinate and intolerable that they would discharge her, and she wouldn’t have to worry about any of it any more. Granted, she would be giving up the opportunity to live her childhood dream, but to live it at the cost she was now facing nullified the value.
Yes. This would all settle down. Maybe she hadn’t been on the ship long enough for people to have built up any real resentment. Maybe they would learn about how pathetic she was and not feel the need to rub it in her face. That would be nice, even though it would be pity they looked down on her with instead of predatory sadism, which wasn’t much better. Easier to fend off, but no less agonizing.
She just needed time. Needed to let the waves settle. Needed to get off her ass and go fix some @#$%. A couple days at most and she could begin the climb in earnest. Hell, she could begin tonight. Having exhausted her unhealthy coping mechanism, only the healthy one existed - throwing herself into her work. Getting lost in wires and circuits for hours at a time. Fixing things. Being useful. Finding some amount of value in herself. A reason to help bolster her confidence, which would in turn help her build up the wall that these crazy people had knocked down.
She just had to avoid...Well, everyone, ideally. Though that Corporal - Firth, was it? - seemed pretty detached. So maybe he would be a good candidate if she did absolutely need to speak with anyone about...anything. And there was the rest of the engineering team she assumed the Last Light had. Mechanics and techs, in her experience, all had a sort of unspoken code among them. They all seemed to know that there was just something about the job that attracted people who didn’t want to talk. And in her experience, when she didn’t want to talk, they didn’t try, and she loved that. And surely she couldn’t be the only engineer on the old tub…right?
Riley remained there, sequestered between the two crates which dwarfed her, for an hour longer. She carefully removed the bandages, and re-wrapped them. She knew herself well enough to make sure when she did that to avoid damaging her palms or fingers in any way that could affect her work. The knuckles had been skinned practically beyond recognition, but she could still use her fingers, even if it hurt. She was glad it hurt. Pain was Riley Miles’ friend. It distracted and, more importantly, it helped her feel tough. She could handle pain. She could handle a lot of pain. So that was something, right? With each burning spike she could tell herself that, if nothing else, she was above succumbing to pain.
If Ike did actually return to that storage room later, he would find the blood to have been already cleaned up. Riley was not about to let any evidence of her weakness remain. She peeked out the door, glancing both ways down the hallway, and made her way back to the medbay to snag some cleaning wipes. Though weirdly, when she arrived, old Danesh seemed to know what she was looking for right off the bat, and already had some for her. He also handed her a tube of antibacterial gel, without saying a word - just bobbing his huge, gaping eye-lenses at her. Blinking, she thanked him and scuttled back to clean up.
And from there, with hands bandaged a third time, now with measures to keep from getting infected - she wasn’t that crazy, at least - Riley trotted down to Engineering - looking nobody in the eye as she went, scowling deeply as a default expression, and making herself as absolutely unapproachable as possible.
The woman - Girl? Not even her age was listed in Mackie’s records, though she looked to be in her mid to late twenties - was perfectly unaffected by Sec’s disdain and hostility. It bounced off her as easily as condensed rubber. Totally oblivious to animosity glaring her right in the face. ”You’re super useful too bruh, don’t forget it” She croaked with a grin, letting the extended fist that, just like every other time without fail, was never accepted, shift instead to a crooked, two-fingered ‘peace’ sign.
Mackie nodded along rhythmically, as if silently counting upward or listening to a particularly frosty beat. ”Right on, right on.” She said in a way that more projected thoughtful comprehension than approval. Maybe later, once she knew a little more about the situation (Mackie always seemed to get the scoop somehow, without ever prying) she would go hang out with one or two of them. The woman had a way of just lingering around people who needed it. It didn’t always help, and sometimes it made things a little worse - but usually it improved things at least a little bit. She was always 'down to chill' and had a seemingly infinite capacity for listening to peoples' problems without judgement. She didn't always have advice, wasn't always brimming with sagely wisdom - but she was always just sort of...There.
It was very hard for most people to be angry at someone who took every negative thing hurled their way and leisurely tossed something easy and good back at them. Also, there was reason to believe that she kept a huge fonking piece up under that hoodie. Which usually helped keep her out of trouble when her too-cool-4-skool demeanor didn’t.
She listened to Kato’s briefing with a look of concern that was more appropriate for contemplating pizza toppings and the profound nature of pizza itself than for considering a potentially deadly situation. Taking a long, thoughtful drag on her herbal smoke, Mack leaned her weight onto one hip as she considered the problem.
”Well do we, like, know who they are? And what they want?” she asked after a moment. ”Cause like, if they’re just lookin’a stick us up, we could just give ‘em what they want. If we know what they want, they might like, at least be up to a chat?” A shrug, as she strolled over to one of the general maintenance benches to set Firth's old gun down, intending to give it a checkup later. Strolling back, she continued ”Ooor...We got any EMP up an’ running? Could knock out their stuff an’ get ‘em an escort down to the surface.” As usual, she wanted to keep conflict from arising rather than letting it become dangerous. As fun as weapons were to fire off, they were best used as a means of neutralizing their own purpose. The threat of overwhelming, excessively deadly retaliation to hostility was usually a pretty good deterrent, if it came down to that - and she was not opposed to pointing a bigger gun at someone if it meant they wouldn’t shoot.
Still thinking, Mack’s brow furrowed in something like distaste, and she she chewed some on the paper. ”If they board, I don’t think we’ve got anything that could take ‘em down non-lethally, not with s-con armor. We totally got the firepower to blow them back to Sol for lunchtime but…” She shook her head. The others didn’t need to hear her say it. She didn’t want to, but she wasn’t stupid - and if there was no other option, then so be it. To be at peace with the universe, after all, was to acknowledge tragedy and pain along with peace and love - to accept it all, and let it wash over. She knew that well.
With a huff, Mackie scratched idly at the back of her head. ”I feel like, we don’t have enough intel or whatever. Whatdda’ we got online for exterior defenses, anything good? Cause like, if we could just chase ‘em off before they get here that’d be stellar...Wait, they like, are coming in on a dropship, right?”
In a way, it was progress. A twisted, perverted and painful way - but a type of progress nonetheless.
She could recoup now. Build her strength back up. Slather mortar and stack bricks and build up the wall that had kept her safe in the two years since the only one willing or able to dig under it had been executed.
She was still screwed. Riley was sure of that. The concept that Annag could actually have even the slightest inkling of desire to legitimately help Riley with anything at all seemed, to her, an absolute impossibility. She was all too certain that now, the whole ship was going to know how pathetic she actually was. Just like last time.
Except that last time, she’d had help. She’d had someone that had forced his way through her barriers, tunnelled under her wall and tackled her and pinned her and made her trust him implicitly. She still never understood why. Maybe she was a charity case. That was her only real theory. Milo did always like helping folks who couldn’t help themselves. But even if she was just some project for him to solve, some pet for him to look after, he had been the exception. It had been okay when it was him. He had never, for one moment, looked at her in horror and revulsion.
But then again, she had been different back then. Better.
Riley stared at the floor, gazed blankly at the drying blood.
Having gotten all that energy out, and once again alone with nobody to judge her or look down on her or mock her, she could think. What sleep she had ecked in however long she’d been there had been restless, but enough to keep her functioning. She was dazed, but just enough to convince herself, for the moment, that maybe their presence had just been another waking dream. Maybe she wasn’t going to have to go out and face the ridicule of a crew delighted to see that the insufferable little brat wasn’t nearly as tough as she let on. It was a nice thought, though she knew that, realistically, it was now up to her to claw her way back up from the dirt.
Yes, she would have to be more bitchy, more angry, more hostile, more reserved, more downright mean and nasty than ever before. Yes, she would have to never relent, no matter what. Yes, she would have to lash out and hurt as many other people as she could, do as much damage as possible, to prove that she wasn’t the spineless worm they would now see her as. And maybe, in time, she could recover from this blow to her dignity. She didn’t need anyone to sock her tormentors in the face for her. She could do it herself. And she would.
And maybe, she thought in a brief, but flaring moment of pessimism, she could be so obstinate and intolerable that they would discharge her, and she wouldn’t have to worry about any of it any more. Granted, she would be giving up the opportunity to live her childhood dream, but to live it at the cost she was now facing nullified the value.
Yes. This would all settle down. Maybe she hadn’t been on the ship long enough for people to have built up any real resentment. Maybe they would learn about how pathetic she was and not feel the need to rub it in her face. That would be nice, even though it would be pity they looked down on her with instead of predatory sadism, which wasn’t much better. Easier to fend off, but no less agonizing.
She just needed time. Needed to let the waves settle. Needed to get off her ass and go fix some @#$%. A couple days at most and she could begin the climb in earnest. Hell, she could begin tonight. Having exhausted her unhealthy coping mechanism, only the healthy one existed - throwing herself into her work. Getting lost in wires and circuits for hours at a time. Fixing things. Being useful. Finding some amount of value in herself. A reason to help bolster her confidence, which would in turn help her build up the wall that these crazy people had knocked down.
She just had to avoid...Well, everyone, ideally. Though that Corporal - Firth, was it? - seemed pretty detached. So maybe he would be a good candidate if she did absolutely need to speak with anyone about...anything. And there was the rest of the engineering team she assumed the Last Light had. Mechanics and techs, in her experience, all had a sort of unspoken code among them. They all seemed to know that there was just something about the job that attracted people who didn’t want to talk. And in her experience, when she didn’t want to talk, they didn’t try, and she loved that. And surely she couldn’t be the only engineer on the old tub…right?
Riley remained there, sequestered between the two crates which dwarfed her, for an hour longer. She carefully removed the bandages, and re-wrapped them. She knew herself well enough to make sure when she did that to avoid damaging her palms or fingers in any way that could affect her work. The knuckles had been skinned practically beyond recognition, but she could still use her fingers, even if it hurt. She was glad it hurt. Pain was Riley Miles’ friend. It distracted and, more importantly, it helped her feel tough. She could handle pain. She could handle a lot of pain. So that was something, right? With each burning spike she could tell herself that, if nothing else, she was above succumbing to pain.
If Ike did actually return to that storage room later, he would find the blood to have been already cleaned up. Riley was not about to let any evidence of her weakness remain. She peeked out the door, glancing both ways down the hallway, and made her way back to the medbay to snag some cleaning wipes. Though weirdly, when she arrived, old Danesh seemed to know what she was looking for right off the bat, and already had some for her. He also handed her a tube of antibacterial gel, without saying a word - just bobbing his huge, gaping eye-lenses at her. Blinking, she thanked him and scuttled back to clean up.
And from there, with hands bandaged a third time, now with measures to keep from getting infected - she wasn’t that crazy, at least - Riley trotted down to Engineering - looking nobody in the eye as she went, scowling deeply as a default expression, and making herself as absolutely unapproachable as possible.
The woman - Girl? Not even her age was listed in Mackie’s records, though she looked to be in her mid to late twenties - was perfectly unaffected by Sec’s disdain and hostility. It bounced off her as easily as condensed rubber. Totally oblivious to animosity glaring her right in the face. ”You’re super useful too bruh, don’t forget it” She croaked with a grin, letting the extended fist that, just like every other time without fail, was never accepted, shift instead to a crooked, two-fingered ‘peace’ sign.
Mackie nodded along rhythmically, as if silently counting upward or listening to a particularly frosty beat. ”Right on, right on.” She said in a way that more projected thoughtful comprehension than approval. Maybe later, once she knew a little more about the situation (Mackie always seemed to get the scoop somehow, without ever prying) she would go hang out with one or two of them. The woman had a way of just lingering around people who needed it. It didn’t always help, and sometimes it made things a little worse - but usually it improved things at least a little bit. She was always 'down to chill' and had a seemingly infinite capacity for listening to peoples' problems without judgement. She didn't always have advice, wasn't always brimming with sagely wisdom - but she was always just sort of...There.
It was very hard for most people to be angry at someone who took every negative thing hurled their way and leisurely tossed something easy and good back at them. Also, there was reason to believe that she kept a huge fonking piece up under that hoodie. Which usually helped keep her out of trouble when her too-cool-4-skool demeanor didn’t.
She listened to Kato’s briefing with a look of concern that was more appropriate for contemplating pizza toppings and the profound nature of pizza itself than for considering a potentially deadly situation. Taking a long, thoughtful drag on her herbal smoke, Mack leaned her weight onto one hip as she considered the problem.
”Well do we, like, know who they are? And what they want?” she asked after a moment. ”Cause like, if they’re just lookin’a stick us up, we could just give ‘em what they want. If we know what they want, they might like, at least be up to a chat?” A shrug, as she strolled over to one of the general maintenance benches to set Firth's old gun down, intending to give it a checkup later. Strolling back, she continued ”Ooor...We got any EMP up an’ running? Could knock out their stuff an’ get ‘em an escort down to the surface.” As usual, she wanted to keep conflict from arising rather than letting it become dangerous. As fun as weapons were to fire off, they were best used as a means of neutralizing their own purpose. The threat of overwhelming, excessively deadly retaliation to hostility was usually a pretty good deterrent, if it came down to that - and she was not opposed to pointing a bigger gun at someone if it meant they wouldn’t shoot.
Still thinking, Mack’s brow furrowed in something like distaste, and she she chewed some on the paper. ”If they board, I don’t think we’ve got anything that could take ‘em down non-lethally, not with s-con armor. We totally got the firepower to blow them back to Sol for lunchtime but…” She shook her head. The others didn’t need to hear her say it. She didn’t want to, but she wasn’t stupid - and if there was no other option, then so be it. To be at peace with the universe, after all, was to acknowledge tragedy and pain along with peace and love - to accept it all, and let it wash over. She knew that well.
With a huff, Mackie scratched idly at the back of her head. ”I feel like, we don’t have enough intel or whatever. Whatdda’ we got online for exterior defenses, anything good? Cause like, if we could just chase ‘em off before they get here that’d be stellar...Wait, they like, are coming in on a dropship, right?”
Robert tried to the best he could, as he had a sliver more intel than her, “probably a drop-ship, as the next supply run isn’t until another week, we aren’t supposed to get more cadets today, right?” He then added, I say sec gets the rest of the guards and put them on patrol, if one of them goes silent, we head for that part of the ship, and see what’ll happen from there.”
"I AM NOT A BRUH!" Sec was practically leaping off the floor in fury, its spider-like legs springing off the floor to try and show its frustration. In reality, this was something of a gift from the divine for the little machine, anything which it could get particularly angry about was something it enjoyed. In its own little mechanical way. "I am a highly sophisticated and state of the art security and war droid! I fought at the massacre of system ORT-54B! I survived the fall of Elis-1!"
When however she mentioned its usefulness, the machine bobbing became slightly more pacified, no less furious, but now the eyes had more of a righteous indignation to them, positively welcoming for the livid security doid. "You're absolutely right I'm useful! I'm the best @#$%ing security droid that's existed! Far better than the rest of em!"
It paused for a few seconds before throwing in one last exclamation. "Rest of em are a bunch of badly forged, cheap metal, hunks of slag, -"
Kato zoned out, letting the machine run on with its litany of insults starting with other security droids and eventually moving on to any and all other beings in the world. He found it was much easier to just let Sec what he wanted and pretend to listen than to actually try properly keeping up with and listening to Sec's inane angry rambling. Sooner or later if someone tried that they'd be driven mad. Occasionally he found it amusing to just get the little thing ranting about something and listen, allow the words to overflow his own memories and squash the flashbacks that pulled him back to a time of simply following orders.
Instead, he decided this time to focus on the two people giving actual advice to the problem and listen intently to what they had to say. At the mention of what they wanted he suddenly went very glassy-eyed for a second, an image flooding his mind.
He'd only been following orders.
Practically imperceptibly he shook his head to clear it, a movement however that either of the two others in the room paying attention to him could catch. "If what Annag says is correct they want to capture the entire ship and turn the guns on the surface, they're apparently part of a faction that's been fighting another down on the surface. I don't know much about it, other than the main conflict seems to be broken up now, so they're turning to other methods for their final victory"
They could just be following orders too.
He knew the desire to avoid the conflict and damage as much as possible that Mackie held since it was the same one that had run through much of his decision making, one that made him feel sick as he spoke his next words. "From what I gathered they're coming in using a civilian ship. the crew still onboard." Not that the crew being there made much of a difference in whether or not they could fire on the ship, they were too rare a commodity out here on this lonesome ringworld to be wasted.
He paused considering the options, "An emp might be a good first choice if we can disable their ship and shut them down, the only problem is then what they do to the crew inside-" He trailed off, he didn't want to say it, he'd caused too much of that in his lifetime to last - well everyone in the entire ringworld ten times over. "It's also then the problem of them having pre-fueled Omni-directional personal thrusters, even with a disabled ship they could just jump across then." He paused once more before looking between the two. "If any of you have ideas how to prevent boarding I'd love to hear it, but I think we might be forced to fight them in here, what's the possibility of trapping them and stunning with with arc weapons?"
Note. Arc weapons fire a small plasma trail then arc small bolts of high voltage lightning along the trail providing highly effective and accurate shock weapons, long charges however and a very limited range has made them very undesirable to conentional laser weaponry.
When however she mentioned its usefulness, the machine bobbing became slightly more pacified, no less furious, but now the eyes had more of a righteous indignation to them, positively welcoming for the livid security doid. "You're absolutely right I'm useful! I'm the best @#$%ing security droid that's existed! Far better than the rest of em!"
It paused for a few seconds before throwing in one last exclamation. "Rest of em are a bunch of badly forged, cheap metal, hunks of slag, -"
Kato zoned out, letting the machine run on with its litany of insults starting with other security droids and eventually moving on to any and all other beings in the world. He found it was much easier to just let Sec what he wanted and pretend to listen than to actually try properly keeping up with and listening to Sec's inane angry rambling. Sooner or later if someone tried that they'd be driven mad. Occasionally he found it amusing to just get the little thing ranting about something and listen, allow the words to overflow his own memories and squash the flashbacks that pulled him back to a time of simply following orders.
Instead, he decided this time to focus on the two people giving actual advice to the problem and listen intently to what they had to say. At the mention of what they wanted he suddenly went very glassy-eyed for a second, an image flooding his mind.
He'd only been following orders.
Practically imperceptibly he shook his head to clear it, a movement however that either of the two others in the room paying attention to him could catch. "If what Annag says is correct they want to capture the entire ship and turn the guns on the surface, they're apparently part of a faction that's been fighting another down on the surface. I don't know much about it, other than the main conflict seems to be broken up now, so they're turning to other methods for their final victory"
They could just be following orders too.
He knew the desire to avoid the conflict and damage as much as possible that Mackie held since it was the same one that had run through much of his decision making, one that made him feel sick as he spoke his next words. "From what I gathered they're coming in using a civilian ship. the crew still onboard." Not that the crew being there made much of a difference in whether or not they could fire on the ship, they were too rare a commodity out here on this lonesome ringworld to be wasted.
He paused considering the options, "An emp might be a good first choice if we can disable their ship and shut them down, the only problem is then what they do to the crew inside-" He trailed off, he didn't want to say it, he'd caused too much of that in his lifetime to last - well everyone in the entire ringworld ten times over. "It's also then the problem of them having pre-fueled Omni-directional personal thrusters, even with a disabled ship they could just jump across then." He paused once more before looking between the two. "If any of you have ideas how to prevent boarding I'd love to hear it, but I think we might be forced to fight them in here, what's the possibility of trapping them and stunning with with arc weapons?"
Note. Arc weapons fire a small plasma trail then arc small bolts of high voltage lightning along the trail providing highly effective and accurate shock weapons, long charges however and a very limited range has made them very undesirable to conentional laser weaponry.
”I know, bruh. You’re like, a total BAMF.” the paradoxical gunsmith replied to Sec, as if he had simply, humbly stated some accomplishment rather than spouted off a litany of indignation and rage, and she were merely agreeing.
The look in Kato’s eye did not go unnoticed. She was quite familiar with that look - and while she often wondered idly just what sort of memory he was replaying (For spacing out like that could mean only one thing) but never asked. If he wanted to talk about it, he’d talk. Or not.
The woman winced visibly when the two primary facets of their enemy’s plans were mentioned. Using a civilian ship and civilian crew to try and usurp mankind’s last, most devastating weapon? Ouch.
There was not a doubt in Mackie’s mind that they could repel a boarding attack. Her armoury was exquisite - one of the only places left on the ship where everything was in tip-top shape. Her passion for armaments had seen to that. Though only Kato knew, Mackie spent almost all of her personal funds on improving the armory when possible - such as the case with Firth’s little gift. It was a modest sized cache, and she was careful to routinely check the other arms lockers situated around the ship, cycling them out in order to perform maintenance and upkeep. No laser ever fizzled or jammed on the Light, not with Macks around. And that wasn’t counting her ’private collection’...
But that didn’t really matter. What mattered was preserving lives, even when people were trying to throw them away. And that made the situation vastly more difficult. Civilians getting involved only further complicated things. But the worst part of all - the part that made the gunsmith glance to Kato, even though she was quite aware that he knew all too well - was that there was not a lot of wiggle room. If the enemy got even close to taking the Light, they would have to end things the bitter way, by any means necessary. Sickening as it was, the lives of ten pirate-insurgents could not be bet against the fifty billion below.
With a thoughtful sigh and a look of uncertainty, Mackie ran a hand through her thick locks again, leaning on the gated wall. ”We don’t have many of those left. I like, sorta’ sold most of ‘em off since they’re totally clunky. We got two ARC rifles and one super dope ARC-gat, buuuut I’ve been having a totally wicked time getting it to run so I can’t make any promises…You’re like, totally right though, if we could get in close...”
Then, suddenly, Mackie’s blue-green eyes lit up with something resembling epiphany. She snapped her fingers. ”I got it.” she announced, in exactly the fashion in which the average burnout would suddenly begin some kind of conspiracy theory, or profound nonsense about the cosmos. She turned to Sec, grinning, pointed finger guns at it. (Though Mackie tended think of Sec as a ‘him’.) ”Sec my man - how would you like to get your hands on a set of super-high-velocity ARC blasters?”
Making it clear that her plan was intended only as a starting point, Mackie laid it out. It was relatively simple; the enemy would have to enter through one of the Light’s docking ports, since there was no way a civilian vessel would have the capability of breaching the hull in any more interesting or explosive fashion. All they had to do was perform ‘routine maintenance’ on all of the ports except one, shutting them all down, blocking them off and forcing the enemy into a bottleneck. They’d let them right in, pretending they had no idea what was coming.
A trap would be waiting for the intruders when they boarded. A bombardment of laser fire to keep them busy, as well as possibly make them underestimate the Light’s crew.
That’s where Sec would come in.
Mackie was pretty confident that, while the ARC-gat was out of commission for good, she could cannibalize the parts from that and a few other unpromising projects out of the back room to rig up a vicious equivalent that could be mounted onto Sec’s native cannons. Using Sec himself as a power source, she was sure that he could achieve an extreme fire rate with the contraption she had in mind. Combined with Sec’s ”@#$%load of experience and skill and @#$%” she was certain that, while the enemy was occupied with the laser fire, Sec could scuttle in and take them all out in one or two swift ARC bombardments. She left it unspoken that he would also have the option to use his own powerful cannons, however much she would prefer he didn't.
The other two ARC rifles would be deployed as backup.
And, if somehow anyone managed to get by all of that, Mackie had some ideas for a 'plan B' that would make damned sure nobody got any farther than Dock B.
The look in Kato’s eye did not go unnoticed. She was quite familiar with that look - and while she often wondered idly just what sort of memory he was replaying (For spacing out like that could mean only one thing) but never asked. If he wanted to talk about it, he’d talk. Or not.
The woman winced visibly when the two primary facets of their enemy’s plans were mentioned. Using a civilian ship and civilian crew to try and usurp mankind’s last, most devastating weapon? Ouch.
There was not a doubt in Mackie’s mind that they could repel a boarding attack. Her armoury was exquisite - one of the only places left on the ship where everything was in tip-top shape. Her passion for armaments had seen to that. Though only Kato knew, Mackie spent almost all of her personal funds on improving the armory when possible - such as the case with Firth’s little gift. It was a modest sized cache, and she was careful to routinely check the other arms lockers situated around the ship, cycling them out in order to perform maintenance and upkeep. No laser ever fizzled or jammed on the Light, not with Macks around. And that wasn’t counting her ’private collection’...
But that didn’t really matter. What mattered was preserving lives, even when people were trying to throw them away. And that made the situation vastly more difficult. Civilians getting involved only further complicated things. But the worst part of all - the part that made the gunsmith glance to Kato, even though she was quite aware that he knew all too well - was that there was not a lot of wiggle room. If the enemy got even close to taking the Light, they would have to end things the bitter way, by any means necessary. Sickening as it was, the lives of ten pirate-insurgents could not be bet against the fifty billion below.
With a thoughtful sigh and a look of uncertainty, Mackie ran a hand through her thick locks again, leaning on the gated wall. ”We don’t have many of those left. I like, sorta’ sold most of ‘em off since they’re totally clunky. We got two ARC rifles and one super dope ARC-gat, buuuut I’ve been having a totally wicked time getting it to run so I can’t make any promises…You’re like, totally right though, if we could get in close...”
Then, suddenly, Mackie’s blue-green eyes lit up with something resembling epiphany. She snapped her fingers. ”I got it.” she announced, in exactly the fashion in which the average burnout would suddenly begin some kind of conspiracy theory, or profound nonsense about the cosmos. She turned to Sec, grinning, pointed finger guns at it. (Though Mackie tended think of Sec as a ‘him’.) ”Sec my man - how would you like to get your hands on a set of super-high-velocity ARC blasters?”
Making it clear that her plan was intended only as a starting point, Mackie laid it out. It was relatively simple; the enemy would have to enter through one of the Light’s docking ports, since there was no way a civilian vessel would have the capability of breaching the hull in any more interesting or explosive fashion. All they had to do was perform ‘routine maintenance’ on all of the ports except one, shutting them all down, blocking them off and forcing the enemy into a bottleneck. They’d let them right in, pretending they had no idea what was coming.
A trap would be waiting for the intruders when they boarded. A bombardment of laser fire to keep them busy, as well as possibly make them underestimate the Light’s crew.
That’s where Sec would come in.
Mackie was pretty confident that, while the ARC-gat was out of commission for good, she could cannibalize the parts from that and a few other unpromising projects out of the back room to rig up a vicious equivalent that could be mounted onto Sec’s native cannons. Using Sec himself as a power source, she was sure that he could achieve an extreme fire rate with the contraption she had in mind. Combined with Sec’s ”@#$%load of experience and skill and @#$%” she was certain that, while the enemy was occupied with the laser fire, Sec could scuttle in and take them all out in one or two swift ARC bombardments. She left it unspoken that he would also have the option to use his own powerful cannons, however much she would prefer he didn't.
The other two ARC rifles would be deployed as backup.
And, if somehow anyone managed to get by all of that, Mackie had some ideas for a 'plan B' that would make damned sure nobody got any farther than Dock B.
Kato looked up at her slowly before turning his gaze to the bouncing ball of mechanical fury that called itself Sec, which now stopped its bobbing for a few seconds to give the idea serious thought. The fact that the machine hadn't immediately dismissed the idea to go charging in itself was a sign that if nothing else it was giving the idea a full and much-needed consideration.
The two digital eyes blinked slowly before glancing as best as they could down at their own body, really this was just an estimation of what the bot was actually doing which was giving itself a quick scan to assess the possibility of adding modified ARC weapons to its arsenal. The idea of adding to its already considerable firepower was an exciting enough thought, the only things that outpowered it were the two heavily modifiable exo-suits. Neither of them had any ARC weaponry, the idea excited it, the only offset was the fact that it would mean having to go into the next fight with the deliberate choice of conceding much of its normal firepower for the usage of the extremely strong ARC cannons.
it looked back up at her and nodded its little head. "I accept this idea! Not only does it place it on the clearly most skilled thing here, not like the other heaps of junk or you flesh bags!" It wouldn't be Sec if it couldn't turn any compliment around into an insult to everyone and everything in the galaxy. "Besides it just makes me even more awesome!"
You always have them, follow orders one last time
Kato blinked before looking back to Mackie and catching her gaze, he knew what she was thinking because it was the same thought that had been crossing his mind. If the worst came to the worst and the plan began to fall through, if even the slimmest chance of the ship being entire captured he could fire them without opening the hatches, destroying everything on the ship and those around it. If there was no other choice it would be a rather fitting end for him, poetic even some might say considering his reputation before the stars ran out.
Of course, they'd pull through though, they always had before and would again. It was just a backup, one that he needed to be prepared to use needs must. That was going to be something he had to think about, for the people below and the memories of the entirety of humanity.
Of course, there were other possibilities, they needed to have a backup in case something went wrong, which invariably it did. It was lucky they were keeping the other ARC's as backup. "We need to make sure the others using the ARCs are well equipped to do so, they need to be someone prepared and ready for the danger - Rob should probably take one, have him support Sec in the main fight, we'll need someone else with an ARC in reserve though, incase -"
He didn't say the next part, it would be obvious to those around him, in case the defenders were overrun or that they broke in somewhere else, they needed someone capable of taking them on in that time and buying time for the rest of the Last Lights crew to do something about it.
Which reminded him, "While you work on upgrading Sec, when you get the chance there's some little thing I'd like you to have a look at. Add a few of your own little flairs to if you know what I mean." He felt she probably would, they'd known each other long enough for it to be likely, he just hoped she'd have the time to do so before the attack.
The two digital eyes blinked slowly before glancing as best as they could down at their own body, really this was just an estimation of what the bot was actually doing which was giving itself a quick scan to assess the possibility of adding modified ARC weapons to its arsenal. The idea of adding to its already considerable firepower was an exciting enough thought, the only things that outpowered it were the two heavily modifiable exo-suits. Neither of them had any ARC weaponry, the idea excited it, the only offset was the fact that it would mean having to go into the next fight with the deliberate choice of conceding much of its normal firepower for the usage of the extremely strong ARC cannons.
it looked back up at her and nodded its little head. "I accept this idea! Not only does it place it on the clearly most skilled thing here, not like the other heaps of junk or you flesh bags!" It wouldn't be Sec if it couldn't turn any compliment around into an insult to everyone and everything in the galaxy. "Besides it just makes me even more awesome!"
You always have them, follow orders one last time
Kato blinked before looking back to Mackie and catching her gaze, he knew what she was thinking because it was the same thought that had been crossing his mind. If the worst came to the worst and the plan began to fall through, if even the slimmest chance of the ship being entire captured he could fire them without opening the hatches, destroying everything on the ship and those around it. If there was no other choice it would be a rather fitting end for him, poetic even some might say considering his reputation before the stars ran out.
Of course, they'd pull through though, they always had before and would again. It was just a backup, one that he needed to be prepared to use needs must. That was going to be something he had to think about, for the people below and the memories of the entirety of humanity.
Of course, there were other possibilities, they needed to have a backup in case something went wrong, which invariably it did. It was lucky they were keeping the other ARC's as backup. "We need to make sure the others using the ARCs are well equipped to do so, they need to be someone prepared and ready for the danger - Rob should probably take one, have him support Sec in the main fight, we'll need someone else with an ARC in reserve though, incase -"
He didn't say the next part, it would be obvious to those around him, in case the defenders were overrun or that they broke in somewhere else, they needed someone capable of taking them on in that time and buying time for the rest of the Last Lights crew to do something about it.
Which reminded him, "While you work on upgrading Sec, when you get the chance there's some little thing I'd like you to have a look at. Add a few of your own little flairs to if you know what I mean." He felt she probably would, they'd known each other long enough for it to be likely, he just hoped she'd have the time to do so before the attack.
Robert sighed, knowing well what Kato meant, “then we’ll have to fight hard.” He then lowered his head, not wanting another Ike incident, but then quickly raising his head and blurting out of realization, “ we need to send out a warning to the crew! As for all we know, they could try to kill whoever they find!
The Engineering deck was...empty.
Utterly, and completely empty.
Desolate.
And Riley wasn’t sure if that was a relief, or quite the opposite.
She had toured the whole place with some haste - already knowing the layout from her years of fan-girl studying, but certain that surely, surely there had to be someone down here, within the belly of the great beast.
But there was nobody. Only the distant groaning of ancient machines, the soothing hum of the great engines. Maybe they were all just...out, at the moment? But no - the Engineering deck had dedicated quarters for the engineering crew, either to serve as permanent residence or temporary berth for on-duty staff. And yet clearly those quarters had not been used in...ages. All of the machines were coated in dust. Every surface thick with it. If Riley had ever experienced a freshly fallen snow firsthand, it would have felt like this.
Reverence mingled with a growing dread as she became certain that, incredibly, unbelievably, she was the Last Light’s only engineer. She was going to have to fix up the ancient beast all on her own. No help. No support. No advice - not that she needed that - nothing. Just her. Perfectly alone.
Well, that's what she wanted. Wasn’t it?
Wasn’t it?
And besides, it couldn’t be that big of a job. The Light was only like nine hundred feet long. And it only had...a...finite number of decks. She could handle it. She was Riley goddamned Miles. She was the best fixer-upper on Ringworld and off it too. And she didn’t have anyone, or anything to distract her. So that was fine. She could do it.
Totally.
All alone.
Just like she wanted.
Mackie did her grooving-to-an-inaudible-rhythm nod. ”Cool, cool. Yeah man, totally. Like, whatever you need bruh, I’m down. Hey Sec, lemme’ get your measurements real quick-” But as she was moving to get the tape measure, the gunsmith heard Robert, stopped, and turned on a heel to look back at Kato. ”Hey uh...How long do we, like got...‘till they get here?”
It had been the obvious question from the start, and nobody had asked. And Mackie's whole plan counted on having at least two days to make her contraption operate to her standards. Ideally three...
Utterly, and completely empty.
Desolate.
And Riley wasn’t sure if that was a relief, or quite the opposite.
She had toured the whole place with some haste - already knowing the layout from her years of fan-girl studying, but certain that surely, surely there had to be someone down here, within the belly of the great beast.
But there was nobody. Only the distant groaning of ancient machines, the soothing hum of the great engines. Maybe they were all just...out, at the moment? But no - the Engineering deck had dedicated quarters for the engineering crew, either to serve as permanent residence or temporary berth for on-duty staff. And yet clearly those quarters had not been used in...ages. All of the machines were coated in dust. Every surface thick with it. If Riley had ever experienced a freshly fallen snow firsthand, it would have felt like this.
Reverence mingled with a growing dread as she became certain that, incredibly, unbelievably, she was the Last Light’s only engineer. She was going to have to fix up the ancient beast all on her own. No help. No support. No advice - not that she needed that - nothing. Just her. Perfectly alone.
Well, that's what she wanted. Wasn’t it?
Wasn’t it?
And besides, it couldn’t be that big of a job. The Light was only like nine hundred feet long. And it only had...a...finite number of decks. She could handle it. She was Riley goddamned Miles. She was the best fixer-upper on Ringworld and off it too. And she didn’t have anyone, or anything to distract her. So that was fine. She could do it.
Totally.
All alone.
Just like she wanted.
Mackie did her grooving-to-an-inaudible-rhythm nod. ”Cool, cool. Yeah man, totally. Like, whatever you need bruh, I’m down. Hey Sec, lemme’ get your measurements real quick-” But as she was moving to get the tape measure, the gunsmith heard Robert, stopped, and turned on a heel to look back at Kato. ”Hey uh...How long do we, like got...‘till they get here?”
It had been the obvious question from the start, and nobody had asked. And Mackie's whole plan counted on having at least two days to make her contraption operate to her standards. Ideally three...
"Surely there must be hordes of data on this ship about me! You mean to say that this ship doesn't have an entire section dedicated to knowing everything there is about me! That's ridiculous, an outrage! I demand this be rectified this very second!" The mere thought seemed to send the little machine off into a fit of anger that was only tempered in some regards by the fact that it was getting the upgrades which would give it another one-up on the other droids aboard. Although the direction the machines anger took was also extremely useful for what the rest of the crew wanted, in many regards Mackie had said the best thing to get the result she wanted.
"Well, whaddya waiting for? Come on ya slacker! Humans have no sense of wasting time do -" Sec paused as it whirled on Kato before scuttling up to him, if it had arms it would be firmly crossing them or waggling in front of his face. "You mean to tell ME that you didn't mention when they'd be here just now?"
Kato looked between the two before realising the information had been spoken, but it had gotten severely lost within the vast eddying swirl of memories that was his brain. "Give me a second." He spoke with a mild embarrassment, before quickly shutting down his optical sensors, allowing the blackness to consume him, here he could sort through his memories and find it quickl-
"The Union of Levasi has acquitted the captains of all war crimes - Only following orders - Cowardly order by Vice Admiral - Heroic choice"
Not now, he had work to do, he couldn't remember that now, there wasn't enough time, when were the insurgents planning their attack?
Back in the old days you could end insurgencies with your name.
Shut up!
He didn't need that now, all he had to do was focus, treat the memories like a sea, just find the right current and allow it to whisk you along to where you need to be. It would be there soon, soon - he had it. There it was, him stood in that room with Annag showing her the true firepower of the ship. When had she said? Oh that's right. He knew now.
His eyes flickered open. "We've got roughly two days before they get here, if they're delayed on the surface a bit more, but two days is the likely time they're coming. You'll need to make sure your work is done as quickly as you can, take as many of the work droids or crew as you need. Robert, go around the crew and warn them of what's coming, while you're at it, pick around 10 - 15 of our best shots and bring them here as quick as you can. We need to run them through the plan and get them ready for what's to come."
All he saw was emptiness, the void calling to him as he slumped there, that and the reflection of his own dead eyes in the glass. It was cold out there, dark and infinite and it called to him. What was left for him here? If Annag wasn't lying to him not even the Feds could stop him leaving now.
It's just a sheet of glass
His sunken eyes skimmed over the heavily reinforced sheet infront of him. There was no way he going through that, not with how long he was spending with his limbs shut down. After all he was still synthetic, many of his cells needed the constant activity to keep themselves from quickly decaying, picking up rot and rust which seemed endemic to Synths.
Who'd care about a rundown Synth leaving?
The crumpled body sat there and continued its eternal watch into the void. Why bother moving when there was nothing else for it to do?
"Well, whaddya waiting for? Come on ya slacker! Humans have no sense of wasting time do -" Sec paused as it whirled on Kato before scuttling up to him, if it had arms it would be firmly crossing them or waggling in front of his face. "You mean to tell ME that you didn't mention when they'd be here just now?"
Kato looked between the two before realising the information had been spoken, but it had gotten severely lost within the vast eddying swirl of memories that was his brain. "Give me a second." He spoke with a mild embarrassment, before quickly shutting down his optical sensors, allowing the blackness to consume him, here he could sort through his memories and find it quickl-
"The Union of Levasi has acquitted the captains of all war crimes - Only following orders - Cowardly order by Vice Admiral - Heroic choice"
Not now, he had work to do, he couldn't remember that now, there wasn't enough time, when were the insurgents planning their attack?
Back in the old days you could end insurgencies with your name.
Shut up!
He didn't need that now, all he had to do was focus, treat the memories like a sea, just find the right current and allow it to whisk you along to where you need to be. It would be there soon, soon - he had it. There it was, him stood in that room with Annag showing her the true firepower of the ship. When had she said? Oh that's right. He knew now.
His eyes flickered open. "We've got roughly two days before they get here, if they're delayed on the surface a bit more, but two days is the likely time they're coming. You'll need to make sure your work is done as quickly as you can, take as many of the work droids or crew as you need. Robert, go around the crew and warn them of what's coming, while you're at it, pick around 10 - 15 of our best shots and bring them here as quick as you can. We need to run them through the plan and get them ready for what's to come."
All he saw was emptiness, the void calling to him as he slumped there, that and the reflection of his own dead eyes in the glass. It was cold out there, dark and infinite and it called to him. What was left for him here? If Annag wasn't lying to him not even the Feds could stop him leaving now.
It's just a sheet of glass
His sunken eyes skimmed over the heavily reinforced sheet infront of him. There was no way he going through that, not with how long he was spending with his limbs shut down. After all he was still synthetic, many of his cells needed the constant activity to keep themselves from quickly decaying, picking up rot and rust which seemed endemic to Synths.
Who'd care about a rundown Synth leaving?
The crumpled body sat there and continued its eternal watch into the void. Why bother moving when there was nothing else for it to do?
Riley shivered.
The main hub of the engineering deck seemed too large and open. She hadn’t imagined it this way when she had pored over the schematics. But then, she hadn’t imagined it desolate and abandoned, and forgotten. Things never seemed to end up quite how she imagined them.
The lights were on, but it seemed to be a cold sort of illumination. Or maybe that was just her. A cold sort of person.
None of it mattered. She reminded herself again. All that mattered was getting to work. And so, without further hesitation, Riley got to work. Taking her diacomm from her coat pocket, Riley noticed the screen was still on. These things had essentially limitless battery life, so that was fine. Idly, she glanced over the title of what she had been reading before...however long ago it was. Time had become irrelevant it seemed, all muddled together, and that was only going to get worse from here.
’Introduction to Biomechanics and Basic Emergency Synthetic Repair’
She closed that with haste, before she had the chance to start thinking about it, then brought up the diagnostics tab, located the central info hub and plugged it in, and sat. She sat for a long time, it seemed, waiting for what she could only assume to be a truly biblical sum of fault codes and warning messages to slog their way from the ship’s great brain into her little diagnostic communicator. She sat in a dusty old chair, wondering idly how long it had been since anyone else had sat there. She half expected to turn around and see a skeleton, half reduced to ash, fading away in a shadowy corner. Why did the shadows all seem so long and deep? Wasn’t this where she was supposed to feel at her most comfortable? That’s always how it had been before-
The little green computer chimed, and Riley barely suppressed a yelp. She’d heart that sound a thousand times. This old thing had been with her almost as long as-... So why now was it startling her?
It was stupid. She needed to just focus on work. Find a project. Throw herself into it with a passion and forget everything but the job.
The list of problems was, of course, horrifyingly long. She almost wondered if it was even safe to be inside this thing. But that didn’t really matter either. She scrolled to the top, setting it to display the most critical errors first, and was immediately faced with some angry red text stating that there had been a critical failure in reactor containment two. Which was really very bad. Riley shuddered - but this time it was at the unsettling nature of what she had been sitting on this whole time.
Yet still, she wasn’t as disturbed by it as she probably should have been. The urgency wasn’t there - and it definitely should have been, given the weight of the issue. But it wasn’t. It was just a thing to work on - so Riley worked. Standing, she rummaged about for some of the tools she would need, stuffing them into her bag - which she had found conveniently in the lift nearest to the medical bay - Riley went on her way. At least she had a goal now. Even if it seemed inexplicably meaningless.
Again, Riley shivered, and this time pulled her jacket a little tighter around her torso, looking around almost as if it might have been some phantom or specter blowing the winds of death down her back.
The corridor and spiraling metal staircase leading down to Reactor Containment two were just as narrow and claustrophobic as she had known they would be - and in this capacity, that wouldn’t bother her. Being confined in small spaces was terrifying - if she couldn’t get out - and Riley never took chances with that sort of thing. But this time, it didn’t just feel like descending into a confined space. It felt like walking into a dungeon.
This was supposed to be a dream.
So why did it feel like a nightmare?
Leaning in just a little bit down toward Sec’s level, Mackie said in a low, conspiratorial voice ”Yo between you and me bro, I dunno’ if I’d trust the data in the computers. You like, never know who might’a entered it in there, y’know?” Then with an oblique, knowing nod that seemed to say ’you and I totally know what’s up’ she returned her attention back to Kato - who, she realized, had had his eyes closed for a little longer than usual.
Softly, noncommittally, and with a casual subtlety so perfect as to make it all but invisible, the gunsmith rested one hand on the cool, metal hull of his back, just below where the servos and gears operating one of his shoulder blade were. If he noticed at all, she’d just smile her usual, super-cool smile that was a nearly permanent fixture on the woman’s face.
”Rad. I’ll get right to it. Yo this thing’s gonna’ be sooo dope.” She said, letting the words trail out some, and mesh with an almost giddy little laugh. ”Ok Sec, lemme’ just get those measurements real quick so you can get back to keepin’ us all safe. If ya’ want’ somethin’ done right, y’know~?” That was certainly a sentiment that the little bot could understand. It would be easy to overlook the lack of derision it was said with. Glancing to Kato as she crouched and took her measurements - jotting the dimensions down on the inside of a pizza box on the floor - she queried silently as to whether he wanted to tell her about that other thing while Sec was still here, or wait until they were again alone in the armory.
Either way, she would be done fairly quickly, and send him on his way with a ”Thanks bruh, I’ll keep you posted and whatever.”
And then, with ‘Robbie’ having gone off to collect some guys and gals for the coming storm, the two of them were alone in the armory - two people who wanted only peace, surrounded on all sides by the instruments of war.
”So. Whats up?” She prompted, leisurely putting her hands behind her head, and looking up at the captain with one quirked brow.
The main hub of the engineering deck seemed too large and open. She hadn’t imagined it this way when she had pored over the schematics. But then, she hadn’t imagined it desolate and abandoned, and forgotten. Things never seemed to end up quite how she imagined them.
The lights were on, but it seemed to be a cold sort of illumination. Or maybe that was just her. A cold sort of person.
None of it mattered. She reminded herself again. All that mattered was getting to work. And so, without further hesitation, Riley got to work. Taking her diacomm from her coat pocket, Riley noticed the screen was still on. These things had essentially limitless battery life, so that was fine. Idly, she glanced over the title of what she had been reading before...however long ago it was. Time had become irrelevant it seemed, all muddled together, and that was only going to get worse from here.
’Introduction to Biomechanics and Basic Emergency Synthetic Repair’
She closed that with haste, before she had the chance to start thinking about it, then brought up the diagnostics tab, located the central info hub and plugged it in, and sat. She sat for a long time, it seemed, waiting for what she could only assume to be a truly biblical sum of fault codes and warning messages to slog their way from the ship’s great brain into her little diagnostic communicator. She sat in a dusty old chair, wondering idly how long it had been since anyone else had sat there. She half expected to turn around and see a skeleton, half reduced to ash, fading away in a shadowy corner. Why did the shadows all seem so long and deep? Wasn’t this where she was supposed to feel at her most comfortable? That’s always how it had been before-
The little green computer chimed, and Riley barely suppressed a yelp. She’d heart that sound a thousand times. This old thing had been with her almost as long as-... So why now was it startling her?
It was stupid. She needed to just focus on work. Find a project. Throw herself into it with a passion and forget everything but the job.
The list of problems was, of course, horrifyingly long. She almost wondered if it was even safe to be inside this thing. But that didn’t really matter either. She scrolled to the top, setting it to display the most critical errors first, and was immediately faced with some angry red text stating that there had been a critical failure in reactor containment two. Which was really very bad. Riley shuddered - but this time it was at the unsettling nature of what she had been sitting on this whole time.
Yet still, she wasn’t as disturbed by it as she probably should have been. The urgency wasn’t there - and it definitely should have been, given the weight of the issue. But it wasn’t. It was just a thing to work on - so Riley worked. Standing, she rummaged about for some of the tools she would need, stuffing them into her bag - which she had found conveniently in the lift nearest to the medical bay - Riley went on her way. At least she had a goal now. Even if it seemed inexplicably meaningless.
Again, Riley shivered, and this time pulled her jacket a little tighter around her torso, looking around almost as if it might have been some phantom or specter blowing the winds of death down her back.
The corridor and spiraling metal staircase leading down to Reactor Containment two were just as narrow and claustrophobic as she had known they would be - and in this capacity, that wouldn’t bother her. Being confined in small spaces was terrifying - if she couldn’t get out - and Riley never took chances with that sort of thing. But this time, it didn’t just feel like descending into a confined space. It felt like walking into a dungeon.
This was supposed to be a dream.
So why did it feel like a nightmare?
Leaning in just a little bit down toward Sec’s level, Mackie said in a low, conspiratorial voice ”Yo between you and me bro, I dunno’ if I’d trust the data in the computers. You like, never know who might’a entered it in there, y’know?” Then with an oblique, knowing nod that seemed to say ’you and I totally know what’s up’ she returned her attention back to Kato - who, she realized, had had his eyes closed for a little longer than usual.
Softly, noncommittally, and with a casual subtlety so perfect as to make it all but invisible, the gunsmith rested one hand on the cool, metal hull of his back, just below where the servos and gears operating one of his shoulder blade were. If he noticed at all, she’d just smile her usual, super-cool smile that was a nearly permanent fixture on the woman’s face.
”Rad. I’ll get right to it. Yo this thing’s gonna’ be sooo dope.” She said, letting the words trail out some, and mesh with an almost giddy little laugh. ”Ok Sec, lemme’ just get those measurements real quick so you can get back to keepin’ us all safe. If ya’ want’ somethin’ done right, y’know~?” That was certainly a sentiment that the little bot could understand. It would be easy to overlook the lack of derision it was said with. Glancing to Kato as she crouched and took her measurements - jotting the dimensions down on the inside of a pizza box on the floor - she queried silently as to whether he wanted to tell her about that other thing while Sec was still here, or wait until they were again alone in the armory.
Either way, she would be done fairly quickly, and send him on his way with a ”Thanks bruh, I’ll keep you posted and whatever.”
And then, with ‘Robbie’ having gone off to collect some guys and gals for the coming storm, the two of them were alone in the armory - two people who wanted only peace, surrounded on all sides by the instruments of war.
”So. Whats up?” She prompted, leisurely putting her hands behind her head, and looking up at the captain with one quirked brow.
A small bobbing by the machine would mean that Mackie would either have to constantly adjust her eye level or simply keep it at a fixed position and watch the droid spring up and down in front of her face. Sec didn't do it to be mean, simply that it annoyed people and that was the way Sec lived if it wasn't doing something to prove how inferior other peoples bodies were to it or getting annoyed it wouldn't be the tiny ball of anger that it was.
"Are you saying that someone would try and deliberately create false information about me! That's outrageous! How dare you insinuate that any of the crew would do such a thing! Also, how dare any of the rest of the crew do this to me! Are they not grateful for all the service I've provided them? For gracing them with my work?" When the choice came for Sec to decide upon which part of the idea angered it, the machine chose both. It liked that solution better than any others that could have presented itself.
It would watch and wait, not at all patiently as 'patience' was not a word that was really recognised in the little machines database. Nor was being a good sport, in particular when it thought others were getting the attention that was deserving to it at that specific moment in time. In particular, it would make this shown through another of its many and long tangents about the state of the rest of the crew accompanied by a helping of angry bobbing.
"Dope - It had better be that at the very least considering how much I'll be going out of my way to do this for you lot!" As per usual Sec could make any situation seem like it was the one being hard done to, even if it involved being granted upgrades it had never gotten before. "You'd better do it right!"
For the machine to stay still during the taking of the measurements was nothing short of a miracle, every chip inside its head screaming at it to just bob up and down once and ruin the latest measurement, force the human to do it all again for the sheer pleasure of expressing its frustration at having to stand still for any length of time. When at last the final one had been taken the angry bobbing would be back in force, practically catapulting itself from wall to wall.
"You'd better have them prepared soon! I'm not going to be let down on this!" With this final parting shot Sec barreled out of the room, not going anywhere in particular, probably to go follow Robert, it gave it someone else to get angry at.
Kato didn't feel the touch on his back at all, it had been a long time since any receptors there had been used and for all intents and purposes the sensors had rotted or rusted away. He'd simply stand there, having delivered his vital message and remembered the correct information, waiting for something else to take his mind of the memories of the past. Anything really for those few moments their memories faded enough in his subconsciousness to stop becoming an issue.
Barely did the fact that Sec had left the room even registered for him, it was only the sudden jolt of speed after a few minutes of surprising and altogether unusual calm that alerted him to that understanding. He should have been more organised, he was back in the old days, back when all he had to do was follow orders.
Suddenly he looked a whole lot older as if age had in some strange way caught up with the man, if just for a second, almost as if uncountable numbers of lives were being played out infront of his eyes every moment that he moved. It took him a few seconds to begin to speak, "I've done a lot in my life -" He halted, before gazing up into her eyes, staring with the vision of hundreds of billions of eyes.
"I've got so many memories, so many thousands of years, I've seen fleets melting before my eyes, cities to rival small moon lauch off into space, watched humanity conquer the very lifeblood of the universe. I've flown with the greatest admirals the human race has ever known, been present at the birth and fall of some of the greatest nations to exist, spanning hundreds of millions of stars and uncountable waves of humanity. I've seen a ray of sunlight glitter through the body of a creature, shattering the light into every colour imaginable, watched as it radiated from ship to ship, bathing us all in a kaleidoscope of patterns-"
He trailed off, slowly averting his gaze. "Yet through all this beauty I've wiped clean the memory of so many others, exterminated entire civilization from the safety of a metal box, watched as megastructures fell apart, imploding with the beauty of a supernova and every time I did I knew they would never see the same things I did - each shot was someone else who could never fly under the belly of stellar entities so titantic that even humanities finest ships were nothing but mere distractions to them, each glassed planet was billions more lives that could never experience the twin dawn of Tellmar."
"I've followed orders so many times th-" A sigh, deeper than Mackie would have ever heard the man make before as if a weight of infinite mass had been dropped on Kato's shoulders and was now in the process of crushing out any and all breath he had left. "I've known what I was doing each time and I chose in the heat of war that their memories were less important than my own. Now I'm the only one left. The only one who remembers the birth of the Union of Levasi, the first war of expansion, our first encounter with Stellarites, the fall of Decar and seen the 'hive city of Mecai', was it worth it? Did the galaxy truly gain anything from denying all these people their dreams - their memories."
"I've taken each and every bit of data that remained of them and stored it in my head after each battle, I've done my best to take the memories they could have made and make them true. Barry, he'd just bought a ticket to the sky city over the ocean planet, Aquallias, so I sat there and watched the sun shimmer over the surface of the water for hours, its rays drawing a long perfect carpet of gold out behind them. When I go, all these memories, those I've created, those I've denied, those I've fulfilled. What happens to all of them? I can't keep preserving them forever, for a while I thought I could, hidden up here on my little ship forever, but this has all proven I can't anymore. Pointless stupid wars keep coming to me, how many more dreams do I have to snuff out to preserve all the ones I've collected till now?"
You've only ever been following orders
"Are you saying that someone would try and deliberately create false information about me! That's outrageous! How dare you insinuate that any of the crew would do such a thing! Also, how dare any of the rest of the crew do this to me! Are they not grateful for all the service I've provided them? For gracing them with my work?" When the choice came for Sec to decide upon which part of the idea angered it, the machine chose both. It liked that solution better than any others that could have presented itself.
It would watch and wait, not at all patiently as 'patience' was not a word that was really recognised in the little machines database. Nor was being a good sport, in particular when it thought others were getting the attention that was deserving to it at that specific moment in time. In particular, it would make this shown through another of its many and long tangents about the state of the rest of the crew accompanied by a helping of angry bobbing.
"Dope - It had better be that at the very least considering how much I'll be going out of my way to do this for you lot!" As per usual Sec could make any situation seem like it was the one being hard done to, even if it involved being granted upgrades it had never gotten before. "You'd better do it right!"
For the machine to stay still during the taking of the measurements was nothing short of a miracle, every chip inside its head screaming at it to just bob up and down once and ruin the latest measurement, force the human to do it all again for the sheer pleasure of expressing its frustration at having to stand still for any length of time. When at last the final one had been taken the angry bobbing would be back in force, practically catapulting itself from wall to wall.
"You'd better have them prepared soon! I'm not going to be let down on this!" With this final parting shot Sec barreled out of the room, not going anywhere in particular, probably to go follow Robert, it gave it someone else to get angry at.
♫
Kato didn't feel the touch on his back at all, it had been a long time since any receptors there had been used and for all intents and purposes the sensors had rotted or rusted away. He'd simply stand there, having delivered his vital message and remembered the correct information, waiting for something else to take his mind of the memories of the past. Anything really for those few moments their memories faded enough in his subconsciousness to stop becoming an issue.
Barely did the fact that Sec had left the room even registered for him, it was only the sudden jolt of speed after a few minutes of surprising and altogether unusual calm that alerted him to that understanding. He should have been more organised, he was back in the old days, back when all he had to do was follow orders.
Suddenly he looked a whole lot older as if age had in some strange way caught up with the man, if just for a second, almost as if uncountable numbers of lives were being played out infront of his eyes every moment that he moved. It took him a few seconds to begin to speak, "I've done a lot in my life -" He halted, before gazing up into her eyes, staring with the vision of hundreds of billions of eyes.
"I've got so many memories, so many thousands of years, I've seen fleets melting before my eyes, cities to rival small moon lauch off into space, watched humanity conquer the very lifeblood of the universe. I've flown with the greatest admirals the human race has ever known, been present at the birth and fall of some of the greatest nations to exist, spanning hundreds of millions of stars and uncountable waves of humanity. I've seen a ray of sunlight glitter through the body of a creature, shattering the light into every colour imaginable, watched as it radiated from ship to ship, bathing us all in a kaleidoscope of patterns-"
He trailed off, slowly averting his gaze. "Yet through all this beauty I've wiped clean the memory of so many others, exterminated entire civilization from the safety of a metal box, watched as megastructures fell apart, imploding with the beauty of a supernova and every time I did I knew they would never see the same things I did - each shot was someone else who could never fly under the belly of stellar entities so titantic that even humanities finest ships were nothing but mere distractions to them, each glassed planet was billions more lives that could never experience the twin dawn of Tellmar."
"I've followed orders so many times th-" A sigh, deeper than Mackie would have ever heard the man make before as if a weight of infinite mass had been dropped on Kato's shoulders and was now in the process of crushing out any and all breath he had left. "I've known what I was doing each time and I chose in the heat of war that their memories were less important than my own. Now I'm the only one left. The only one who remembers the birth of the Union of Levasi, the first war of expansion, our first encounter with Stellarites, the fall of Decar and seen the 'hive city of Mecai', was it worth it? Did the galaxy truly gain anything from denying all these people their dreams - their memories."
"I've taken each and every bit of data that remained of them and stored it in my head after each battle, I've done my best to take the memories they could have made and make them true. Barry, he'd just bought a ticket to the sky city over the ocean planet, Aquallias, so I sat there and watched the sun shimmer over the surface of the water for hours, its rays drawing a long perfect carpet of gold out behind them. When I go, all these memories, those I've created, those I've denied, those I've fulfilled. What happens to all of them? I can't keep preserving them forever, for a while I thought I could, hidden up here on my little ship forever, but this has all proven I can't anymore. Pointless stupid wars keep coming to me, how many more dreams do I have to snuff out to preserve all the ones I've collected till now?"
You've only ever been following orders
Robert bolted out of the room to warn of the incoming attack, as well as to get the sharp shooters so that he could follow Kato’s orders as much as he could, he yelled it, he told other people to warn others of the nye incoming attack, it spread like wildfire, as most pass-it-on kind of stuff, he rounded up who he knew had good shots, those with good accuracy rates on their documents, and did what he could. He brought back 13 people, and then brought them up to speed on the situation, “so in nearly two days, we’ll be attacked by ten or more morts in armour, state of the art, all that crap, and you were chosen because your records show that you have a good eye, and most importantly, a good trigger finger. You will be in action, probably the only actual action you will be in, so prepare, and in a day you will be fitted with armour, some laser weapons, so let’s get to work, alright?”
As the woman listened to Kato’s words, her stance changed. She did not sag, but came down from the stretch into a comfortable position leaning lazily on a nearby bench, palms planted on the edge, ankles crossed. She watched the floor as if maybe the words might be written there, or their images projected onto the old metal. She nodded along, the heavy dreadlocks spilling over her shoulders and hanging to either side of her face.
She watched the floor with a somber smile - not sad, simply there. A companionable little smile. She smiled as if she was watching the sun over the Aquallias sea, running her eyes along that golden road.
She nodded that slow, rhythmic nod, like the ancient man’s words were some immaculate beat that only she could hear. With two fingers, she held the joint in her mouth and inhaled deeply, holding it there, savoring it there, letting it out, then hoisting her eyes back up to peer at Kato over the rims of her narrow shades.
”I guess when you’re gone, K...They’ll just...go away.” she said peacefully, without any really real melancholy. Taking another long drag, holding it, Mackie blew out a perfect smoke ring that hung in the air before her. It looked like Ringworld. Like the great Clarke-Stations that had been home to uncountable sums of people. Like the Dyson-ring superstructures that had orbited around moons, utilizing the gravitational field to produce energy for vast populations to go about living and dreaming their own multitudes of dreams.
”Everything does, sooner or later.” She added, then removing the joint with those two fingers, she blew a puff of air at the smoke ring. It disintegrated, collapsing into swirls of nonsense, eddies and twisting spirals of madness. The perfection of it was ruined by her idle puff. Ringworld died. The superstructure torn apart, murdering everyone on it, dooming those who had depended on its power, stranding them in a life of darkness and starvation, collapsing their society just as the structure of the ring had fallen to bits - and all for no reason other than the idle whim of one woman.
Mackie flicked her eyes back from the sight of it to the ancient man, with his myriad scars and haunted eyes - which, she noticed not for the first time, weren’t all that far off from her own in shade. She let that idle, companionable smile become just a little warmer, just a little more reassuring. She didn’t necessarily believe that she could actually help - but that was something else about the weird, paradoxical hippie-gunsmith. It didn’t really matter. Most things didn’t, not really. And that was okay.
She watched the floor with a somber smile - not sad, simply there. A companionable little smile. She smiled as if she was watching the sun over the Aquallias sea, running her eyes along that golden road.
She nodded that slow, rhythmic nod, like the ancient man’s words were some immaculate beat that only she could hear. With two fingers, she held the joint in her mouth and inhaled deeply, holding it there, savoring it there, letting it out, then hoisting her eyes back up to peer at Kato over the rims of her narrow shades.
”I guess when you’re gone, K...They’ll just...go away.” she said peacefully, without any really real melancholy. Taking another long drag, holding it, Mackie blew out a perfect smoke ring that hung in the air before her. It looked like Ringworld. Like the great Clarke-Stations that had been home to uncountable sums of people. Like the Dyson-ring superstructures that had orbited around moons, utilizing the gravitational field to produce energy for vast populations to go about living and dreaming their own multitudes of dreams.
”Everything does, sooner or later.” She added, then removing the joint with those two fingers, she blew a puff of air at the smoke ring. It disintegrated, collapsing into swirls of nonsense, eddies and twisting spirals of madness. The perfection of it was ruined by her idle puff. Ringworld died. The superstructure torn apart, murdering everyone on it, dooming those who had depended on its power, stranding them in a life of darkness and starvation, collapsing their society just as the structure of the ring had fallen to bits - and all for no reason other than the idle whim of one woman.
Mackie flicked her eyes back from the sight of it to the ancient man, with his myriad scars and haunted eyes - which, she noticed not for the first time, weren’t all that far off from her own in shade. She let that idle, companionable smile become just a little warmer, just a little more reassuring. She didn’t necessarily believe that she could actually help - but that was something else about the weird, paradoxical hippie-gunsmith. It didn’t really matter. Most things didn’t, not really. And that was okay.
He looked down at his hands before watching the smoke ringworld in all its glory, the defiance of humanity to keep existing, the lives that clung to a bit of metal flinging itself around a black hole. The mightiest of all of natures creations locked away and yet it took such a simple push to erase it all, wipe clean any and all evidence of those that had existed there, all their hopes and dreams washed away with such terrible ease. It was almost laughable to the man- more machine now than human, no matter what humanity built, no matter how high it reached, in the end, time would catch up with them, it always did.
As he thought that it struck him, no matter what time found and knocked down, there'd always be another idiot to place something straight back up. Fight the same endless fight, it was what humanity did best after all.
"Hey, Mackie ..." His eyes drifted away and to the ceiling, as if staring at some forgotten scene that only he remembered. What it was would be impossible to tell, a battle, a creature, or simply a long forgotten view that existed only inside his head, yet in many senses, it didn't really matter what it was. Only he could see it.
"When I go-" There was almost a sense of finality to his voice, as if at that moment he had resigned himself to the inevitable that someday even he wouldn't be able to outrun time forever, that sooner or later it would catch him like it had done for everyone that the ancient captain ever knew. Yet it also contained a hint of defiance, that if he was to go into the void it would be kicking and screaming, fighting for every inch of ground taken. "If any of us are left. I want you to take apart the wiring in my head and extract all the data."
He paused, eyes refocusing on the woman in front of him, seeming older by the second. "I want it to be stored away, or given to someone capable of turning it into an online database, so much of it has been recorded through these eyes that everyone deserved to be able to see what I've seen"
Suddenly he let out a burst of short but hard laughter, the sort a dying soldier would make to spit in the face of the reaper as they felt its cold hands clutching at their soul. "Even now - I still haven't accepted it, I'm still trying to find ways to cheat death, to keep all of them from going, for just that bit longer."
They didn't want to die either
He knew and deep down he felt that much of this was the collected desire of all the spirits, the memories stored away inside the sea that was his brain crying out to keep on going. They, like him, just wanted to have one more moment basking in the starlight of their glory days, of the sights seen and missed. Of those moments of wonder where the entirety of the galaxy seemed to stand still. All of this could disappear like a spark amongst a raging fire.
"Till then, we've got to trust that the time for all this to end, for the final candle to go out isn't this week -" He hardly noticed her smile, not with all the others there, clamouring for survival.
Now's the chance
He'd thought that so many times as each chance popped up and slipped on by. Each moment, he'd belived that was the chance, willed for his muscles to boot back up and respond, each time nothing happened. His eyes stayed fixed on the vast emptiness beyond and he watched. He could never push that away, he could stay there forever.
Is that really what you think?
It was comforting, infinite and ever expanding, it didn't judge, it didn't try to hurt him or others, it simply was. He could be at peace there.
Are you just programmed to think that?
he sat there and watched as his life and dreams slipped from his grasp and began to melt away, each attempt to recapture them getting further away.
You're not a person, just an unwanted shell
As he thought that it struck him, no matter what time found and knocked down, there'd always be another idiot to place something straight back up. Fight the same endless fight, it was what humanity did best after all.
"Hey, Mackie ..." His eyes drifted away and to the ceiling, as if staring at some forgotten scene that only he remembered. What it was would be impossible to tell, a battle, a creature, or simply a long forgotten view that existed only inside his head, yet in many senses, it didn't really matter what it was. Only he could see it.
"When I go-" There was almost a sense of finality to his voice, as if at that moment he had resigned himself to the inevitable that someday even he wouldn't be able to outrun time forever, that sooner or later it would catch him like it had done for everyone that the ancient captain ever knew. Yet it also contained a hint of defiance, that if he was to go into the void it would be kicking and screaming, fighting for every inch of ground taken. "If any of us are left. I want you to take apart the wiring in my head and extract all the data."
He paused, eyes refocusing on the woman in front of him, seeming older by the second. "I want it to be stored away, or given to someone capable of turning it into an online database, so much of it has been recorded through these eyes that everyone deserved to be able to see what I've seen"
Suddenly he let out a burst of short but hard laughter, the sort a dying soldier would make to spit in the face of the reaper as they felt its cold hands clutching at their soul. "Even now - I still haven't accepted it, I'm still trying to find ways to cheat death, to keep all of them from going, for just that bit longer."
They didn't want to die either
He knew and deep down he felt that much of this was the collected desire of all the spirits, the memories stored away inside the sea that was his brain crying out to keep on going. They, like him, just wanted to have one more moment basking in the starlight of their glory days, of the sights seen and missed. Of those moments of wonder where the entirety of the galaxy seemed to stand still. All of this could disappear like a spark amongst a raging fire.
"Till then, we've got to trust that the time for all this to end, for the final candle to go out isn't this week -" He hardly noticed her smile, not with all the others there, clamouring for survival.
Now's the chance
He'd thought that so many times as each chance popped up and slipped on by. Each moment, he'd belived that was the chance, willed for his muscles to boot back up and respond, each time nothing happened. His eyes stayed fixed on the vast emptiness beyond and he watched. He could never push that away, he could stay there forever.
Is that really what you think?
It was comforting, infinite and ever expanding, it didn't judge, it didn't try to hurt him or others, it simply was. He could be at peace there.
Are you just programmed to think that?
he sat there and watched as his life and dreams slipped from his grasp and began to melt away, each attempt to recapture them getting further away.
You're not a person, just an unwanted shell
It felt like a coffin.
The great, hefty bulk of the reactor containment tank hung over Riley, slightly askew. She lay there on her back, staring blankly up at the thing, wedged between it and the housing wall beneath her. Her legs protruded at a slightly awkward angle out of the system, which looked like some hidden maw devouring her alive. PLaces like this were supposed to feel safe and cozy, so long as she knew she wasn’t trapped. But instead, it felt like a grave, as silent and still as the vast cemetary on Mt. Etna.
It was a markedly easy problem to fix, despite the critical warnings. So simple an issue, in fact, that it was deplorable that anyone should have let it happen in the first place, let alone allow it to go so long unchecked. All she had to do was readjust the kinetic restraint saddle, and fix up some adjacent wires that had been damaged by the shifting of the tank.
It was exactly the sort of thing that somebody needed to be reprimanded for. She should have been furious that this mighty, venerable vessel had been so neglected. Such a simple problem to fix, with potentially deadly consequences if left unchecked. She should have already been preparing her litany of berating and cursing, demanding of Kato or whoever as to how they could have let this happen and don’t they pay any attention and how stupid and this and that…
But no such thoughts came to mind. For a moment, she even tried to get angry over it, if only because she knew herself well enough, knew that she should have been furious - but she wasn’t. It was just a thing to do, and so she would do it. It didn’t even take any real conscious thought to adjust the old harness, and the wires were methodically stripped and reworked with an almost blank stare.
And while the little space did feel all too much like a coffin, RIley found that she wasn’t particularly bothered by that, either.
It didn’t take long to finish. And when the job was done, the little engineer just packed her things up again and, with not so much as a trace of the usual satisfaction or pride she typically felt after finishing an important job, glanced disinterestedly to her DC to see what the next item on the agenda was. According to the angry red letters, Propulsion Drive Four was on the verge of detonating, and reducing the rear half of the Last Light to a glassy slag. Idly, Riley wondered why the ship had reported that as being less vital an issue than the Reactor Containment, and considered re-cataloging the problems briefly before coming to the conclusion that she didn’t really care.
Like a ghost, Riley walked the dead halls of the engineering deck, boots casting up dust, coat pulled tight around her to protect from a chill that existed mostly in her mind. She thought of nothing, except how to handle the next problem. Like a narcotic oblivion, Riley’s frame of reference became smaller and smaller. Her life became a series of mechanical problems, each to be overcome in turn. And while it did not make her feel happy or even content, it did keep her focused. It did keep her from thinking about the things that hurt. Kept her from thinking about the silence that suffocated her like an oily rag, the chill air that held her pinned down while she averted her eyes and prayed to a godless universe for it to stop, just stop, please-
The ancient captain’s eyes refocused on Mackie abruptly, and her own were right there to catch the stare. She had never been quite sure why the rare times when Kato’s eyes really, truly focused on her it always made her shiver, just a little. It was like the feeling one got atop a towering skyscraper, looking down and out onto a vast, endless, depthless sea. The subtle, subconscious understanding of what it meant to be truly timeless. She had always loved that little shiver, regardless of it being not altogether pleasant.
”Yeah, K.” She said softly, eyes locked on his own for that rare, precious moment of something that approached presence of mind, ”I’ll take care of it.”
And, as usual, she wouldn’t let on that, despite everything, her smile going unnoticed did actually sting. Just a little. Not that she had expected him to take notice. He never did.
But that was okay.
The great, hefty bulk of the reactor containment tank hung over Riley, slightly askew. She lay there on her back, staring blankly up at the thing, wedged between it and the housing wall beneath her. Her legs protruded at a slightly awkward angle out of the system, which looked like some hidden maw devouring her alive. PLaces like this were supposed to feel safe and cozy, so long as she knew she wasn’t trapped. But instead, it felt like a grave, as silent and still as the vast cemetary on Mt. Etna.
It was a markedly easy problem to fix, despite the critical warnings. So simple an issue, in fact, that it was deplorable that anyone should have let it happen in the first place, let alone allow it to go so long unchecked. All she had to do was readjust the kinetic restraint saddle, and fix up some adjacent wires that had been damaged by the shifting of the tank.
It was exactly the sort of thing that somebody needed to be reprimanded for. She should have been furious that this mighty, venerable vessel had been so neglected. Such a simple problem to fix, with potentially deadly consequences if left unchecked. She should have already been preparing her litany of berating and cursing, demanding of Kato or whoever as to how they could have let this happen and don’t they pay any attention and how stupid and this and that…
But no such thoughts came to mind. For a moment, she even tried to get angry over it, if only because she knew herself well enough, knew that she should have been furious - but she wasn’t. It was just a thing to do, and so she would do it. It didn’t even take any real conscious thought to adjust the old harness, and the wires were methodically stripped and reworked with an almost blank stare.
And while the little space did feel all too much like a coffin, RIley found that she wasn’t particularly bothered by that, either.
It didn’t take long to finish. And when the job was done, the little engineer just packed her things up again and, with not so much as a trace of the usual satisfaction or pride she typically felt after finishing an important job, glanced disinterestedly to her DC to see what the next item on the agenda was. According to the angry red letters, Propulsion Drive Four was on the verge of detonating, and reducing the rear half of the Last Light to a glassy slag. Idly, Riley wondered why the ship had reported that as being less vital an issue than the Reactor Containment, and considered re-cataloging the problems briefly before coming to the conclusion that she didn’t really care.
Like a ghost, Riley walked the dead halls of the engineering deck, boots casting up dust, coat pulled tight around her to protect from a chill that existed mostly in her mind. She thought of nothing, except how to handle the next problem. Like a narcotic oblivion, Riley’s frame of reference became smaller and smaller. Her life became a series of mechanical problems, each to be overcome in turn. And while it did not make her feel happy or even content, it did keep her focused. It did keep her from thinking about the things that hurt. Kept her from thinking about the silence that suffocated her like an oily rag, the chill air that held her pinned down while she averted her eyes and prayed to a godless universe for it to stop, just stop, please-
The ancient captain’s eyes refocused on Mackie abruptly, and her own were right there to catch the stare. She had never been quite sure why the rare times when Kato’s eyes really, truly focused on her it always made her shiver, just a little. It was like the feeling one got atop a towering skyscraper, looking down and out onto a vast, endless, depthless sea. The subtle, subconscious understanding of what it meant to be truly timeless. She had always loved that little shiver, regardless of it being not altogether pleasant.
”Yeah, K.” She said softly, eyes locked on his own for that rare, precious moment of something that approached presence of mind, ”I’ll take care of it.”
And, as usual, she wouldn’t let on that, despite everything, her smile going unnoticed did actually sting. Just a little. Not that she had expected him to take notice. He never did.
But that was okay.
One of those picked to be part of the squad at the back called out at the end of the speech in Robert's direction. "And what will you be doing sir? Hiding at the back or fighting up front with us? Why can't we all get ARC blasters and most importantly why are we not just using the ship's firepower to wipe these rebels through the void? Sir!"
From the looks on most of their faces and the way they nodded along with the questions, it would be quite clear to Robert that the idea of being placed directly on the frontline of a battle was not the most agreeable to them. They'd signed up to get away from all the close combat laser battles, to sit safely inside a metal box so far away from any other attacks that those firing could only appear as tiny glimmers of light. They were scared, but also frustrated, why did they have to get sent to possibly die? Why couldn't they just shoot these things with the ship's guns?
Another voice, this one from a scared looking, but well built ship gunner, he'd served for 30 years as one of the operators of one of the remaining mining ships until an asteroid had got past the point defence system he was operating and out of fear he'd transferred to the warship, so bristling with defences that he never thought it could be threatened. "What else are we doing to prepare the ship for attack other than a day's weapon training?"
He turned and for a second looked away before turning back to face the strange, paradoxical hippe gunsmith. His face displayed a curious, almost peaceful smile, which generally wasn't something ever really seen on the ancient captain's face, in a strange way it looked like relief, like the weight which was constantly crushing down on his shoulders, the clamouring of voices so numerous that to count them would take even the smartest computer decades to count them had in some way faded. "Thank you."
It would be strange for anyone to actually hear the man say that, considering often he spent living so utterly in the past, so much so that for the man to spend any actual time in the present, or even to acknowledge just what was going on around him most of the time, much less produce an emotion about it was highly unusual. "Knowing there's someone waiting there to take care of all of them gives me some peace."
Another of his long drawn out sighs passed through his lips, another vision of times gone by. Another sudden flicker of reality. "Thank you for being there for me ... it means a lot." Another long drawn out silence from the soldier, the drowned silence of waves which had parted to allow a bobbing survivor to surface for a second swallowing them back up in an instant.
You think this will help them forgive?
"If you get time -" He spoke suddenly changing the topic, breaking the silence with a resounding crash of a hammer against weak and flimsy glass. "I've got a special project for you to work on. A pair of cybernetic arms for a new crew member, her old ones were rather crude and far too heavy for her. These new ones need to pack a punch, but also have your special little touch." It was all followed by a weak grin, but a smile nonetheless, he'd found another distraction and was pursuing it with a vengeance, doing his best to pick at all the strands before they fled and escaped his grasp forever.
From the looks on most of their faces and the way they nodded along with the questions, it would be quite clear to Robert that the idea of being placed directly on the frontline of a battle was not the most agreeable to them. They'd signed up to get away from all the close combat laser battles, to sit safely inside a metal box so far away from any other attacks that those firing could only appear as tiny glimmers of light. They were scared, but also frustrated, why did they have to get sent to possibly die? Why couldn't they just shoot these things with the ship's guns?
Another voice, this one from a scared looking, but well built ship gunner, he'd served for 30 years as one of the operators of one of the remaining mining ships until an asteroid had got past the point defence system he was operating and out of fear he'd transferred to the warship, so bristling with defences that he never thought it could be threatened. "What else are we doing to prepare the ship for attack other than a day's weapon training?"
He turned and for a second looked away before turning back to face the strange, paradoxical hippe gunsmith. His face displayed a curious, almost peaceful smile, which generally wasn't something ever really seen on the ancient captain's face, in a strange way it looked like relief, like the weight which was constantly crushing down on his shoulders, the clamouring of voices so numerous that to count them would take even the smartest computer decades to count them had in some way faded. "Thank you."
It would be strange for anyone to actually hear the man say that, considering often he spent living so utterly in the past, so much so that for the man to spend any actual time in the present, or even to acknowledge just what was going on around him most of the time, much less produce an emotion about it was highly unusual. "Knowing there's someone waiting there to take care of all of them gives me some peace."
Another of his long drawn out sighs passed through his lips, another vision of times gone by. Another sudden flicker of reality. "Thank you for being there for me ... it means a lot." Another long drawn out silence from the soldier, the drowned silence of waves which had parted to allow a bobbing survivor to surface for a second swallowing them back up in an instant.
You think this will help them forgive?
"If you get time -" He spoke suddenly changing the topic, breaking the silence with a resounding crash of a hammer against weak and flimsy glass. "I've got a special project for you to work on. A pair of cybernetic arms for a new crew member, her old ones were rather crude and far too heavy for her. These new ones need to pack a punch, but also have your special little touch." It was all followed by a weak grin, but a smile nonetheless, he'd found another distraction and was pursuing it with a vengeance, doing his best to pick at all the strands before they fled and escaped his grasp forever.
He sighed, and said sombrely, “If we had enough ARC blasters, you’d have ARC blasters, and I’ll be with you, strength in numbers, I guess. You guys are just the backup, if the ship’s defences can’t keep them out, well, either that or Kato wants the least amount of casualties. So, since most of you have fought battles, won wars, and came out with only scars, then you can fight now, so prepare yourselfs, physically and mentally, for a firefight. Now you can go back to your duties and such.” He never liked the look of fear in a soldier going into another mans war, but if they weren’t prepared for death, then they probably shouldn’t have joined marines.
The change in Kato was so sudden that Mackie found herself caught off guard by it. The woman blinked, cocking her head just slightly to the side and cheeks dimpling slightly as her grin shifted to something a little brighter. She was about to say something trite and dismissively cool when he continued - not only thanking her, which was a rare enough thing in itself - but actually seeming, for a moment, to really be there. In the moment. In some way, it felt like a privilege to witness. And there he was, even talking about ’the “P-word”’. In relation to himself, no less.
Macks wasn’t quite sure exactly what she had done to get this brief glimpse through a crack in the man’s virtually indestructible mental armor, composed of time and regret and pain - but she was definitely glad for it.
But it was the extension of his appreciation that had the strongest effect. Abruptly and for no apparent reason, Mackie tossed her head back and burst into a fit of girlish giggling that had the effect of making her look several years younger, despite really not needing it. She blushed a hot pink.
It was, really, the only response she could give him.
In time, the giggling subsided, though the grin and a faint trace of pink lingered persistently. ”Yeah man, I gotcha’. Sounds sweet. Might like, have Jack or Robyn swing by since they’re like, totally sick with hydraulics and whatever.”
A moment of what she thought at least to be companionable silence fell over them. Mackie let it hang. Then, hoisting off her reclined leaning position up against the bench, the woman sauntered off toward the back room - gently fist-bumping Kato’s one remaining fleshy arm as she passed. ”A’ight. I’mma get started on this. If you need anything else, you like, totally know the drill~”
Riley awoke with a start, choking momentarily on a stifled scream and hitting her head on the low ceiling as she tried to lurch into an upright position. Seeing the ceiling hardly eight inches from her nose, a wave of panic washed over her. She tried to breathe, tried to move and could do neither.
And then, the panic dissipated as her mind comprehended the meaning of what her eyes were showing it. The intestinal tangle of wires and cords stuffed up into the compartment she had struck her now screaming forehead on. She had been sorting through the disastrous guts of the regulatory monitoring system up under the belly of the hub computer. Undoing some shoddy technician’s shoddy work and substituting her own, much more proper technique. She had finished, it seemed. Not that she could actually remember - life had become just a series of tasks not worth retaining in her mind. It had been like sleepwalking. She wasn’t sure how many times she had fallen asleep in this same fashion, nor of how long it had been each time. Minutes? Hours? How long had it been since she had come down to the Engineering deck? What had life been before the Engineering deck?
Riley didn’t know. All she knew was that she was shivering, soaked in a cold, clammy sweat and staring blankly up at the most recent of her finished projects. All she knew was that she was alone.
Utterly, completely, absolutely alone.
The halls of the Engineering deck were perfect silence. She could have heard a pin drop. The background thrumming of the great engines which kept the massive ship in orbit had become a feeling more than a sound, and she didn’t hear it at all.
That sound should have been reassuring.
She knew that.
Even as she stared blankly up at the wires in her coffin-sized alcove, she knew something was wrong.
Milo is dead
Riley enjoyed her work. Legitimately and wholly. She liked having things to do, things to make her feel useful and worth the air she breathed. For all the hate and anger and rudeness, Riley was’t immune to having fun. And one of the things she always had the most fun with was this - exactly what she was doing now.
Riley fixed things. She loved fixing things. And that’s what she had been doing for however many hours or days she’d been down here. And she wasn’t just fixing anything - she was fixing the boat of her dreams. The glorious vessel that she had tried to enthuse over with the othersMilo is dead, who just didn’t see the appeal. The great, mighty Last Light was hers. Hers to maintain. Hers to explore. Hers to fix. Hers to buff and polish every wall and corner until it gleamed like it always had in her dreams. It was hers.
And she didn’t want it.
Not really.
It was fine. But she could do without. Give or take. Whatever.
Without taking from her stare the glazed and glassy sheen, Riley wiggled out of the minute crevice, finding herself on the floor of the Engineering Hub. The ceiling, seeming too high for a ship of this size, arced over her, tangled with pipes and struts and vents and shafts and beams and valves and everything else. The Hub Computer loomed over her, dusty screen illuminating the somehow gloomy chamber with the blue of the background, and the red of the alerts, telling a similar story to her diacomm.
Riley sat up, and looked lazily around. A mess of tools and supplies sat in heaps around the Hub, organized in a loose circle around where Riley had taken to sitting for brief periods. It looked like some kind of lonesome survivalist camp. She had slept there once or twice if she remembered correctly, though surely only for a few minutes at a time. Maybe an hour.
She was alone. It was what she’d wanted. There was nobody to bother her, annoy her, pester her, get in her way, tell her she wasn’t alone, make her angry. Nobody but herself, and her thoughts. IT was what she’d wanted. Like she’d wanted the Last Light. And now she had both - and she didn’t want either.
No. Of course she did. She knew that logically. That much was obvious. She knew she still wanted the ship, so she knew that she still wanted to be alone. Just because she felt differently didn’t make it true. She didn’t need anybody. She was Riley Miles. All she needed was herself and her tools. That was how it had always been.Milo is dead It wasn’t about to change now. Why should it? Because some manipulative, melodramatic idiots had tried to drag her into a mess that she had managed to escape from unscathed? Because somebody had @#$%ed with her? Gotten through her shell only to bite at the softness within? Had the audacity to try again? To hunt her down just to see her at her weakest and most pathetic, so they could go tell everyone how pitiful she really was?
Riley didn’t need him. Riley didn’t need anybody. She didn’t need Milo.Ike is deadShe didn’t care about anybody. Herself included. She needed only the silence of the Engineering Deck’s perfect desolation. This abandoned place that she could call home, that deathly silence that tricked the mind into hearing the footsteps of specters just so it has something to listen to.
That was all she needed.
Solitude.
Macks wasn’t quite sure exactly what she had done to get this brief glimpse through a crack in the man’s virtually indestructible mental armor, composed of time and regret and pain - but she was definitely glad for it.
But it was the extension of his appreciation that had the strongest effect. Abruptly and for no apparent reason, Mackie tossed her head back and burst into a fit of girlish giggling that had the effect of making her look several years younger, despite really not needing it. She blushed a hot pink.It was, really, the only response she could give him.
In time, the giggling subsided, though the grin and a faint trace of pink lingered persistently. ”Yeah man, I gotcha’. Sounds sweet. Might like, have Jack or Robyn swing by since they’re like, totally sick with hydraulics and whatever.”
A moment of what she thought at least to be companionable silence fell over them. Mackie let it hang. Then, hoisting off her reclined leaning position up against the bench, the woman sauntered off toward the back room - gently fist-bumping Kato’s one remaining fleshy arm as she passed. ”A’ight. I’mma get started on this. If you need anything else, you like, totally know the drill~”
♫
She screamed in slow motion.
Time had ceased to exist. The world was empty and desolate. The air around her formed into ethereal walls that were closing in, closing in, closing in but never quite crushing her. She breathed against her will, the air forcing its way down her throat like a rapist making promises. She floated on a sea of nothingness, her body trembling from the core. Buzzing.
Seconds passed, and again the realization fell down upon her like a tidal wave, pressing down, and down and down on her chest like a sopping hand, forcing the air out of her, screaming in her face as her own throat burned with the jagged, tearing sound of another wracking sob.
Milo was dead.
It hit again.
And again.
And again.
The ceiling slammed down onto her head. She buckled, curling up, then bucking wildly against her restraints for the hundredth time. It was in vain. Everything was in vain.
Milo is dead.
When she was too weak to continue, her body giving out without her permission, the struggling ceased. The ropes binding her forearms squared behind her back had not budged. There was no point. But the need to fight them was primal, instinctual, the animal side throwing logic to the wind and telling her maybe if she got away, if she ran really fast, she could make it to the execution line in time to stop it from happening. If only she ran fast enough, she could turn back time and undo it all.
Milo is dead.
Riley’s head spun, and the world spun counter. The little room was upside down in a thousand directions at once. It had just been one instant. A second. One click. One rapport. Why hadn’t she been able to do anything? Why hadn’t she just broken the ziptie and sprinted across the field, and dove and shoved Milo out of the way and take the bullet for him? Why couldn’t she have struggled then like she struggled now, and distracted them long enough for him to run away? Or maybe @#$%ed them off enough to let her take his place?
Milo is dead.
It came like a heartbeat. Like a tidal quake. Like the universe falling out from beneath her. Only one moment just a second one click just a second one moment an instant oe drop one click one moment just should have done something change it gone should have can’t should have helped screamed changed time go back one second could have time over there must have been a way a way a way away away away there must have been blackness came in a formless void as her energy ran out, her body unable to handle this timeless place where only trembling rage and horror and despair existed must have been a way draining her, devouring her, suffocating her go back go back go back have to go back go back have to go back have to sleep, have to pass out, can’t keep going back have to go back change it fix it have to fix it I fix things I fix things why can’t I go back and fix it I can fix anything that’s what he said Milo said I could fix anything Milo doesn’t lie he’s always there and have to change it fix it fix this fix everything have to sleep have to pass out, drained, world spinning and dreams of Milo’s eyes fix this have to fix can’t fix have to fix slipping into the void slipping I don’t want to go no no I’m not ready have to fix it keep fixing it dont want to go don’t want to go
Time had ceased to exist. The world was empty and desolate. The air around her formed into ethereal walls that were closing in, closing in, closing in but never quite crushing her. She breathed against her will, the air forcing its way down her throat like a rapist making promises. She floated on a sea of nothingness, her body trembling from the core. Buzzing.
Seconds passed, and again the realization fell down upon her like a tidal wave, pressing down, and down and down on her chest like a sopping hand, forcing the air out of her, screaming in her face as her own throat burned with the jagged, tearing sound of another wracking sob.
Milo was dead.
It hit again.
And again.
And again.
The ceiling slammed down onto her head. She buckled, curling up, then bucking wildly against her restraints for the hundredth time. It was in vain. Everything was in vain.
Milo is dead.
When she was too weak to continue, her body giving out without her permission, the struggling ceased. The ropes binding her forearms squared behind her back had not budged. There was no point. But the need to fight them was primal, instinctual, the animal side throwing logic to the wind and telling her maybe if she got away, if she ran really fast, she could make it to the execution line in time to stop it from happening. If only she ran fast enough, she could turn back time and undo it all.
Milo is dead.
Riley’s head spun, and the world spun counter. The little room was upside down in a thousand directions at once. It had just been one instant. A second. One click. One rapport. Why hadn’t she been able to do anything? Why hadn’t she just broken the ziptie and sprinted across the field, and dove and shoved Milo out of the way and take the bullet for him? Why couldn’t she have struggled then like she struggled now, and distracted them long enough for him to run away? Or maybe @#$%ed them off enough to let her take his place?
Milo is dead.
It came like a heartbeat. Like a tidal quake. Like the universe falling out from beneath her. Only one moment just a second one click just a second one moment an instant oe drop one click one moment just should have done something change it gone should have can’t should have helped screamed changed time go back one second could have time over there must have been a way a way a way away away away there must have been blackness came in a formless void as her energy ran out, her body unable to handle this timeless place where only trembling rage and horror and despair existed must have been a way draining her, devouring her, suffocating her go back go back go back have to go back go back have to go back have to sleep, have to pass out, can’t keep going back have to go back change it fix it have to fix it I fix things I fix things why can’t I go back and fix it I can fix anything that’s what he said Milo said I could fix anything Milo doesn’t lie he’s always there and have to change it fix it fix this fix everything have to sleep have to pass out, drained, world spinning and dreams of Milo’s eyes fix this have to fix can’t fix have to fix slipping into the void slipping I don’t want to go no no I’m not ready have to fix it keep fixing it dont want to go don’t want to go
From the cell’s tiny window, two pairs of eyes watched.
A small, relatively androgynous girl with bright crimson hair sat on the cot, arms tied squared at the small of her back, hands wrapped in layer after layer of bandages, thickly enough to turn them into useless, bloated nubs. She bucked wildly against the restraints, lurching forward to pull taut the rope that tethered her arms, with enough slack to sit upright on the cot, to a small protrusion on the wall. She flailed and sobbed, budy shaking, the muffled sound just barely reaching the two men who watched her through the tiny window set into the metal door.
”Jesus @#$%ing Christ Sarge. She’s just a kid-”
“What the @#$% else am I supposed to do with her? She won’t stop. She’s freaking out the others.”
“Sarge we’re here to help these people. They’re citizens, not prisoners.”
“I damned well know that! But for @#$%’s sake the kid’s skinned her knuckles almost to the goddamned bone! Those bandages are on there for a reason-”
“Sarge this is no way to make these people understand we’re not here to hurt them.”
As they looked in, the girl’s energy depleted, and she slumped, falling into a disquieting half-sleep that was quite clearly riddled with waking nightmares and sudden, brief returns to semi-consciousness.
”We just don’t have the facilities to handle this right now. She's only like that to keep her from hurting herself even more. If I had humane restraints and a padded cell I-..."
The older man’s words trailed off, and the younger, while not appeased, softened slightly.
”What about her...group? Platoon, whatever they call it? The other kids. Do we know if any of them made it?”
“We’re still trying to sort through the records. They were using a weird system…”
“There were what, six, seven kids per unit?”
“Something like that.”
“Well she can’t possibly be the only one left…”
A small, relatively androgynous girl with bright crimson hair sat on the cot, arms tied squared at the small of her back, hands wrapped in layer after layer of bandages, thickly enough to turn them into useless, bloated nubs. She bucked wildly against the restraints, lurching forward to pull taut the rope that tethered her arms, with enough slack to sit upright on the cot, to a small protrusion on the wall. She flailed and sobbed, budy shaking, the muffled sound just barely reaching the two men who watched her through the tiny window set into the metal door.
”Jesus @#$%ing Christ Sarge. She’s just a kid-”
“What the @#$% else am I supposed to do with her? She won’t stop. She’s freaking out the others.”
“Sarge we’re here to help these people. They’re citizens, not prisoners.”
“I damned well know that! But for @#$%’s sake the kid’s skinned her knuckles almost to the goddamned bone! Those bandages are on there for a reason-”
“Sarge this is no way to make these people understand we’re not here to hurt them.”
As they looked in, the girl’s energy depleted, and she slumped, falling into a disquieting half-sleep that was quite clearly riddled with waking nightmares and sudden, brief returns to semi-consciousness.
”We just don’t have the facilities to handle this right now. She's only like that to keep her from hurting herself even more. If I had humane restraints and a padded cell I-..."
The older man’s words trailed off, and the younger, while not appeased, softened slightly.
”What about her...group? Platoon, whatever they call it? The other kids. Do we know if any of them made it?”
“We’re still trying to sort through the records. They were using a weird system…”
“There were what, six, seven kids per unit?”
“Something like that.”
“Well she can’t possibly be the only one left…”
Riley awoke with a start, choking momentarily on a stifled scream and hitting her head on the low ceiling as she tried to lurch into an upright position. Seeing the ceiling hardly eight inches from her nose, a wave of panic washed over her. She tried to breathe, tried to move and could do neither.
And then, the panic dissipated as her mind comprehended the meaning of what her eyes were showing it. The intestinal tangle of wires and cords stuffed up into the compartment she had struck her now screaming forehead on. She had been sorting through the disastrous guts of the regulatory monitoring system up under the belly of the hub computer. Undoing some shoddy technician’s shoddy work and substituting her own, much more proper technique. She had finished, it seemed. Not that she could actually remember - life had become just a series of tasks not worth retaining in her mind. It had been like sleepwalking. She wasn’t sure how many times she had fallen asleep in this same fashion, nor of how long it had been each time. Minutes? Hours? How long had it been since she had come down to the Engineering deck? What had life been before the Engineering deck?
Riley didn’t know. All she knew was that she was shivering, soaked in a cold, clammy sweat and staring blankly up at the most recent of her finished projects. All she knew was that she was alone.
Utterly, completely, absolutely alone.
The halls of the Engineering deck were perfect silence. She could have heard a pin drop. The background thrumming of the great engines which kept the massive ship in orbit had become a feeling more than a sound, and she didn’t hear it at all.
That sound should have been reassuring.
She knew that.
Even as she stared blankly up at the wires in her coffin-sized alcove, she knew something was wrong.
Milo is dead
Riley enjoyed her work. Legitimately and wholly. She liked having things to do, things to make her feel useful and worth the air she breathed. For all the hate and anger and rudeness, Riley was’t immune to having fun. And one of the things she always had the most fun with was this - exactly what she was doing now.
Riley fixed things. She loved fixing things. And that’s what she had been doing for however many hours or days she’d been down here. And she wasn’t just fixing anything - she was fixing the boat of her dreams. The glorious vessel that she had tried to enthuse over with the othersMilo is dead, who just didn’t see the appeal. The great, mighty Last Light was hers. Hers to maintain. Hers to explore. Hers to fix. Hers to buff and polish every wall and corner until it gleamed like it always had in her dreams. It was hers.
And she didn’t want it.
Not really.
It was fine. But she could do without. Give or take. Whatever.
Without taking from her stare the glazed and glassy sheen, Riley wiggled out of the minute crevice, finding herself on the floor of the Engineering Hub. The ceiling, seeming too high for a ship of this size, arced over her, tangled with pipes and struts and vents and shafts and beams and valves and everything else. The Hub Computer loomed over her, dusty screen illuminating the somehow gloomy chamber with the blue of the background, and the red of the alerts, telling a similar story to her diacomm.
Riley sat up, and looked lazily around. A mess of tools and supplies sat in heaps around the Hub, organized in a loose circle around where Riley had taken to sitting for brief periods. It looked like some kind of lonesome survivalist camp. She had slept there once or twice if she remembered correctly, though surely only for a few minutes at a time. Maybe an hour.
She was alone. It was what she’d wanted. There was nobody to bother her, annoy her, pester her, get in her way, tell her she wasn’t alone, make her angry. Nobody but herself, and her thoughts. IT was what she’d wanted. Like she’d wanted the Last Light. And now she had both - and she didn’t want either.
No. Of course she did. She knew that logically. That much was obvious. She knew she still wanted the ship, so she knew that she still wanted to be alone. Just because she felt differently didn’t make it true. She didn’t need anybody. She was Riley Miles. All she needed was herself and her tools. That was how it had always been.Milo is dead It wasn’t about to change now. Why should it? Because some manipulative, melodramatic idiots had tried to drag her into a mess that she had managed to escape from unscathed? Because somebody had @#$%ed with her? Gotten through her shell only to bite at the softness within? Had the audacity to try again? To hunt her down just to see her at her weakest and most pathetic, so they could go tell everyone how pitiful she really was?
Riley didn’t need him. Riley didn’t need anybody. She didn’t need Milo.Ike is deadShe didn’t care about anybody. Herself included. She needed only the silence of the Engineering Deck’s perfect desolation. This abandoned place that she could call home, that deathly silence that tricked the mind into hearing the footsteps of specters just so it has something to listen to.
That was all she needed.
Solitude.
It was a nice silence, such a peaceful one which he shared with the laughing, smiling woman opposite him. He loved her company, it was one of the few that could distract him from everything he'd done, the voices clawing away at his brain, the memories they brought. In his own way it was a companionable silence, one that brought solace from pain and regret. Something he found hard to shut out on most days, it would come back for him in full force afterward he knew, but in that moment he didn't regret that choice.
"Thank you -" Those words trailed out once more, another strange hint of emotion, another wave of flashes of reality. For another few seconds, he was truly there in the room with her, giving another of the strange faded smiles, one that truly felt genuine. A tiny fade in mental armour thicker than the ship itself and almost certainly constructed from it. "Either of them should be able to help greatly, I'll send the person in question up when the times comes, until then, I'll be in my quarters."
The sensation of flesh touching his own was strange, it was one of the only areas left about him that could truly touch - could feel anything besides regret and fear. Mostly the touch it felt was cold hard metal, something solid to grasp onto, to act as an anchor, yet for those few seconds, that single touch felt more stabilising than anything he'd felt before. Perhaps that was something to look into.
you killed us
It was quiet outside his body on the journey back to his room, his hands resting on the grooves, cracks, and scars that ran along the scuffed walls of the ship back to his cabin. Each one telling its own story, of a cargo spilled, a malfunctioning droid, a furious cadet, a botched repair job, so many memories stored in one place, yet so few who knew how to ever read or comprehend them.
We had lives that you crushed
A wandering finger reached out and brushed a long-running scar that ran along the wall, scuffing out part of the sign which told the crew the corridor they were now following. "Officers de/k" That was his first exo use, a curious brain and even more curious hands had found the sword release and had gone swinging it about, running the blade along the edge of the wall and destroying the letter c. He'd ha -.
Did you even read any of the acords of Sol?
He'd had such trouble trying to explain to his commanding officer afterward why a fresh sword scar had appeared up around the ship, defacing the officers quarters no less. They'd meant to fix it, he knew that, but things happened, they always did, the captain got promoted, a war was fought and he'd found himself the only officer left, a fresh-faced ensign, who-
Did you even know why the war was being fought?
Who'd suddenly been given a full command, now that had felt weird, standing there in the command center, radar pinging off and orders whizzing through. It felt like a -
Did you even stop to think about your mission?
A dream come true in many ways, then came that mission, the -
Did you believe that your team surrounded a planet on stealth ships for peaceful reasons?
THE MISSION THAT HAD SENT HIM DOWN THE PATH OF BECOMING AN ICON FOR THE UNION OF LEVASI, A -
After the first one, was the rest easier, you'd wiped out trillions, why stop there?
A HERO TO HIS PEOPLE!
Are these the same people that when a system rebelled it was obliterated by you, scattered among the cosmic winds like your enemies previously?
SHUT UP! WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT? I WAS ONLY DOING WHAT I WAS TOLD TO!
You never questioned? - You never wondered? - How human are you? - You pretend to regret now, but back then - We all know, we all watched! - I saw my entire planet vaporise before my eyes, watched my families escape ship catch a missile on their out - YOU CHOSE TO DO IT!
I HAD TO PRESERVE THE ORDER AND STABILITY LEVASI CREATED! SOMEONE HAD TO DO IT!
YOUR ORDER WAS SLAVERY! - We never asked for it! - Now it's all gone, was it worth it? Were we worth your peace?
I - it was the right choice for the galaxy, it brought prosperity with i-
You didn't lie to her, why lie to us, to yourself?
I've given you what you wanted didn't I? The memories you wanted to create - the lives you never lived.
Because you took them from us, we wanted to live them ourselves - not through the eyes of the man who murdered us
I've preserved you up here...
YOU THINK THAT EXCUSES YOU?
Kato reached his door, felt it slide open, a portal to his refuge, a place of wires and cables, of recording equipment and holofeeds and them. They were waiting there for him, faces in the dark, vast innumerable faces, each gazing down upon him in the vast void that was his mind. He couldn't see them, he couldn't see anything else in this room, but he knew they were there, they always were.
You can't hide from us in here - you don't get the right to be happy! - war does not excuse what you did - if you truly believe this excuses you, then keep recording us - keep recording all your memories! - YOU DO NOT HAVE THE CHOICE TO REST! - I forgive you
"You mean to tell me we're going into this fight underequipped?" The horror in the man's voice was almost tasteable, so thickly did it spread out into the air, he looked around for a few seconds before gulping down a huge breath of air, allowing it to swoosh around his mouth like the last breath of fresh air he'd taste for a long time. For a second it almost looked like he was contemplating simply dropping all his items and fleeing, but something stopped him.
"If you're to fight in the frontlines with us it will be an honour sir, to die alongside you and for the Federation!" It looked like an effort but he pulled himself into a smart salute, the action bringing those around him to follow suit, mimicking the gesture as a sign of respect from those believed to be sent off to die.
"With all due respect, I'd like to start my training now please sir! Any change to be a better shot may allow one of us to take at least one of these rebel scum out with us sir!" They were soldiers ready to follow Robert into battle and to kill.
"Thank you -" Those words trailed out once more, another strange hint of emotion, another wave of flashes of reality. For another few seconds, he was truly there in the room with her, giving another of the strange faded smiles, one that truly felt genuine. A tiny fade in mental armour thicker than the ship itself and almost certainly constructed from it. "Either of them should be able to help greatly, I'll send the person in question up when the times comes, until then, I'll be in my quarters."
♫
The sensation of flesh touching his own was strange, it was one of the only areas left about him that could truly touch - could feel anything besides regret and fear. Mostly the touch it felt was cold hard metal, something solid to grasp onto, to act as an anchor, yet for those few seconds, that single touch felt more stabilising than anything he'd felt before. Perhaps that was something to look into.
you killed us
It was quiet outside his body on the journey back to his room, his hands resting on the grooves, cracks, and scars that ran along the scuffed walls of the ship back to his cabin. Each one telling its own story, of a cargo spilled, a malfunctioning droid, a furious cadet, a botched repair job, so many memories stored in one place, yet so few who knew how to ever read or comprehend them.
We had lives that you crushed
A wandering finger reached out and brushed a long-running scar that ran along the wall, scuffing out part of the sign which told the crew the corridor they were now following. "Officers de/k" That was his first exo use, a curious brain and even more curious hands had found the sword release and had gone swinging it about, running the blade along the edge of the wall and destroying the letter c. He'd ha -.
Did you even read any of the acords of Sol?
He'd had such trouble trying to explain to his commanding officer afterward why a fresh sword scar had appeared up around the ship, defacing the officers quarters no less. They'd meant to fix it, he knew that, but things happened, they always did, the captain got promoted, a war was fought and he'd found himself the only officer left, a fresh-faced ensign, who-
Did you even know why the war was being fought?
Who'd suddenly been given a full command, now that had felt weird, standing there in the command center, radar pinging off and orders whizzing through. It felt like a -
Did you even stop to think about your mission?
A dream come true in many ways, then came that mission, the -
Did you believe that your team surrounded a planet on stealth ships for peaceful reasons?
THE MISSION THAT HAD SENT HIM DOWN THE PATH OF BECOMING AN ICON FOR THE UNION OF LEVASI, A -
After the first one, was the rest easier, you'd wiped out trillions, why stop there?
A HERO TO HIS PEOPLE!
Are these the same people that when a system rebelled it was obliterated by you, scattered among the cosmic winds like your enemies previously?
SHUT UP! WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT? I WAS ONLY DOING WHAT I WAS TOLD TO!
You never questioned? - You never wondered? - How human are you? - You pretend to regret now, but back then - We all know, we all watched! - I saw my entire planet vaporise before my eyes, watched my families escape ship catch a missile on their out - YOU CHOSE TO DO IT!
I HAD TO PRESERVE THE ORDER AND STABILITY LEVASI CREATED! SOMEONE HAD TO DO IT!
YOUR ORDER WAS SLAVERY! - We never asked for it! - Now it's all gone, was it worth it? Were we worth your peace?
I - it was the right choice for the galaxy, it brought prosperity with i-
You didn't lie to her, why lie to us, to yourself?
I've given you what you wanted didn't I? The memories you wanted to create - the lives you never lived.
Because you took them from us, we wanted to live them ourselves - not through the eyes of the man who murdered us
I've preserved you up here...
YOU THINK THAT EXCUSES YOU?
Kato reached his door, felt it slide open, a portal to his refuge, a place of wires and cables, of recording equipment and holofeeds and them. They were waiting there for him, faces in the dark, vast innumerable faces, each gazing down upon him in the vast void that was his mind. He couldn't see them, he couldn't see anything else in this room, but he knew they were there, they always were.
You can't hide from us in here - you don't get the right to be happy! - war does not excuse what you did - if you truly believe this excuses you, then keep recording us - keep recording all your memories! - YOU DO NOT HAVE THE CHOICE TO REST! - I forgive you
"You mean to tell me we're going into this fight underequipped?" The horror in the man's voice was almost tasteable, so thickly did it spread out into the air, he looked around for a few seconds before gulping down a huge breath of air, allowing it to swoosh around his mouth like the last breath of fresh air he'd taste for a long time. For a second it almost looked like he was contemplating simply dropping all his items and fleeing, but something stopped him.
"If you're to fight in the frontlines with us it will be an honour sir, to die alongside you and for the Federation!" It looked like an effort but he pulled himself into a smart salute, the action bringing those around him to follow suit, mimicking the gesture as a sign of respect from those believed to be sent off to die.
"With all due respect, I'd like to start my training now please sir! Any change to be a better shot may allow one of us to take at least one of these rebel scum out with us sir!" They were soldiers ready to follow Robert into battle and to kill.
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